thyssenkrupp Steel stands for high-quality products for demanding applications. In order to continue to meet these customer requirements in the future, special solutions are needed on the path to climate neutrality.

Dr. Frank Ahrenhold presents thyssenkrupp's climate concept based on direct reduction using hydrogen and green electricity: It is largely based on the existing structures of Europe's largest integrated steel site. Proven process stages of the steel mills and rolling will be retained and will continue to produce the grades that are tailored to the customers' product portfolio.

In this way, the Duisburg steelworks aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 30 per cent as early as 2030, in order to then achieve climate neutrality in 2045.

The world's leading steel producer has an ambitious plan to switch production to climate-neutral technologies. Green hydrogen plays a key role in this. Low-CO2 steel products from ArcelorMittal are already available today.

One thing is certain: steel production plays an important role in the German economy and we should do anything to lead this industry into a green future. In his presentation, Martin Zappe (Program Manager at SALCOS®) will shed light on the opportunities and challenges of transforming the steel industry. He reports on core aspects of the new "Salzgitter AG 2030" strategy as well as on SALCOS®, Salzgitter AG's innovative "frontrunner" program working towards low CO2-emissions in steel production at the steelworks of Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH. 

The steel industry is undergoing a fundamental reorientation to face the challenges of climate change. The SMS group offers a wide range of technologies, processes and know-how for all stages of this journey: Be it the planning and implementation of a step-by-step transition from a carbon-based route to a next-to-zero emissions plan or developing completely new plants using the most sustainable technologies throughout the entire value chain.

Direct reduction technology is central to the transformation of the steel industry, replacing coal and coke with natural gas or hydrogen. This, in combination with electric melters, makes it possible to produce steel in a virtually climate-neutral way. The ENERGIRON process, a direct reduction technology jointly developed by Tenova and Danieli, represents the state of the art in direct reduction processes. It is the only direct reduction process that allows the flexible use of reduction gases and charge materials as well as 100% utilization of hydrogen and the commercialization of by-products such as CO2. In combination with hydrogen-based burner technologies as well as hybrid solutions for heat treatment, a complete decarbonization of the entire process chain is thus feasible with plant technology already available today. 

Each direct reduction process requires unique iron ore qualities. In these processes, the grain size plays a major role due to different process technologies used. Other important properties are mineralogical structure and chemical analysis. The latter characteristic is less important for direct reduction, but rather for the subsequent processing of the DRI produced.

Globally, the steel industry is responsible for ~7% of total global CO2 emissions and the target is to go to a near net-zero emissions by steps till 2050, at least for EU.
With the amendment to the Climate Change Act, the German Federal Government intends to tighten climate regulations and achieve greenhouse gas neutrality by 2045.
While Europe is a front runner in regulatory measures, steel industry could not move fast enough to implement all necessary modifications in steel plants. China, by far the largest steel-producing country and CO2 emitter by the way, is moving differently with strong investments in the EAF route and in green energy despite its net-zero emissions target is delayed to 2060.
Germany steel production is based by around 70% on integrated steel plant and this makes more difficult a fast transition time from BF-BOF route to other routes based on natural gas or even worse on hydrogen. An investment on EAF route is faster, more flexible in terms of input raw material and steel grade composition. Danieli presents a way to lower the steel carbon footprint while keeping capability for producing high-quality grades with low residual element contents using different charge materials.

This talk focuses on the performance and state of the art of electric arc furnaces using three-phase current and direct current. Challenges involved in switching to the elcetric steel route will also be discussed. An outlook on the two alternative concepts of reduction furnaces and electric arc furnaces will be provided.

The presentation discusses today's challenges for small and medium-sized steel mills towards carbon-neutral production. Further, it shows how smaller steel mills can use digitalization to their advantage.

Steel is an excellent recyclable material and steel scrap is already a sought-after raw material starting on its way to new high-performance products in electric arc furnaces. As for the global expansion of infrastructure, mobility and the energy industry far more steel is needed than is available in scrap, around 70% of the approximately 2 billion tons of steel produced worldwide each year is now produced by primary smelting of iron ore. To meet climate targets, the CO2-intensive blast furnace route must be replaced by direct reduction processes. The porous sponge iron (DRI) produced is processed into the corresponding steel grades in the electric arc furnace. There are considerable challenges here, particularly with regard to slag metallurgy and the associated degree of purity. This is all the more true if a variable amount of scrap containing impurities is added. For example, copper or tin can hardly be removed from the melt, and there is a risk of impurities accumulating as the recycled content increases. To ensure that future steels meet the increasing requirements for strength, toughness, durability and carbon emissions, the chemical compositions and production processes must be reconsidered. Against the background of a circular steel economy, this article discusses important steps in the value chain, from the development of contamination-tolerant steels and resource-efficient heat treatment processes to concepts for service life extension, e.g. through re-use or re-manufacturing.