Modular and hybrid heating technologies in steel production (Clean Steel Partnership) (IA)

Steel plant gases are partly used internally as heating gases and partly used externally, in nearby power plants, to produce electricity at high cost and high CO₂ load.

These gases could be used in reduction processes (blast furnace or even direct reduction) to reduce fossil carbon use, provided they are well prepared for injection in these processes. This notably includes cleaning, compression, heating and removal of oxidised compounds such as CO₂ and H₂O, e.g. through scrubbing or reforming operations. To make a real difference on CO₂ emissions, all these preparation steps need to be performed using internal resources (by-products, heat) or external but low-C energy sources (e.g. electricity, using plasma torches).

The concepts to be developed under this topic are expected to address one or more of the following areas:

• Development of a flexible, modular technology that can easily be scaled up for the stepwise integration of heating technologies in Blast furnaces, Electric Arc Furnaces and Direct Reduction Processes;
• Technologies that target the integration of new materials and gases workflows in existing steelworks, combining exhaust gases from the reduction processes and heat generated in downstream processes to reduce the external requirements of energy.

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