Carbon Direct Avoidance in steel: Electricity and hydrogen-based metallurgy (Clean Steel Partnership) (IA) -

Expected Outcome

Projects outcomes will enable achieving the expected impacts of the destination by improving energy efficiency in raw materials value chains.

Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

• Demonstration of technologies in the steel sector leading to a reduction of CO2 emissions by 2050 by at least 80 to 95% compared to 1990 levels;
• Improve energy and resource efficiency and increase utilisation of renewable energy sources[1] in metallurgical processes to substitute fossil fuels;
• Enabling steel production through carbon direct avoidance (CDA) technologies at a demonstration scale;
• Efficient integration of renewable energy sources, considering also their intermittency and the possibility to offer demand-response flexibility.

Relevant indicators and metrics, with baseline values, should be clearly stated in the proposal.

Scope

This topic covers carbon direct avoidance technologies leading to significant CO2 emission reduction in the steel sector.

The Commission’s Strategic Vision “A Clean Planet for all” indicates that deep CO2 emissions reductions in the steel sector are possible through a combination of technological pathways, including steel recycling, carbon capture utilisation and storage, process integration, and electricity/hydrogen-based metallurgy. While energy intensity has reduced significantly over the past decades, the steel industry remains a large source of emissions due to preferred use of coal and energy needed to reduce iron oxides. With alternative pathways used with green electricity and green gases, the emissions can be further reduced so that these pathways could achieve CO2 reductions of up to 95% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels.

There is no one solution to achieve low-CO2 steelmaking, as there is expected to be a variety of production technologies in the future. Relevant participation from sectors other than steel is not excluded, if the technologies presented are compatible with the expected outcomes of the topic and the Clean Steel partnership objectives.

The projects proposed are expected to address the following research and innovation areas:

• Replacement of fossil carbon energy by renewable (hydro/wind/solar) electricity in iron and steelmaking;
• Development of pilots and demonstrators in the field of direct reduction of iron with hydrogen. Direct reduction of iron ore with high amounts of hydrogen is expected to be key for CO2 neutral steelmaking;
• Improvement of plasma melting processes with improved electrode technologies using a plasma torch or plasma smelting reduction leading to CO2 reduction compared to fossil-based fuels;
• Development and testing of direct electricity based iron oxides reduction processes including the electrolytic reduction at high or low temperature;
• Innovation activities focused on the process and the product properties as well as on the impact of the product properties on the downstream processes (e.g. Electric Arc Furnace). The process technology may have to be adapted to the new boundary conditions;

Proposals submitted under this topic should include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the introduction to this Destination.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on Clean Steel.

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement

Activities are expected to start at TRL 5 and achieve TRL 8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

Co-programmed European Partnerships

[1]Biomass utilisation in line with the objectives of the EU Biodiversity Strategy.

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