Pioneering Sustainable Recovery in Steelmaking: Hydrogen-Based Technology for Byproduct Management

Project Information

Dust2Value

Grant agreement ID: 101138742

DOI

10.3030/101138742

EC signature date 7 December 2023

Start date 1 January 2024

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

€ 4 602 250,00

EU contribution

€ 4 602 250,00

Coordinated by

MONTANUNIVERSITAET LEOBEN
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Dust2Value (Pioneering Sustainable Recovery in Steelmaking: Hydrogen-Based Technology for Byproduct Management)

Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Europe’s steel industry increasingly relies on Electric Arc Furnaces (EAFs) to recycle zinc-coated steel scrap into new products. This vital circular activity, however, generates a fine, hazardous material known as Electric Arc Furnace Dust (EAFD), which is rich in zinc and iron. Annually, the EU produces over 1.5 million tonnes of this dust. Current treatment methods typically rely on processes using coal or coke that recover zinc but discard the valuable iron as a slag. This approach is not only inefficient in its use of resources but also carries a significant energy and climate footprint.
The Dust2Value project introduces a innovative alternative: using hydrogen instead of coal-based materials to recover both zinc and iron from EAFD. The core of our innovation is a kiln where hydrogen is used to extract zinc and iron from their oxidized forms. The process is designed as a self-sustaining loop: zinc vapor is captured and then re-oxidized using steam in a cooler zone of the furnace. This step simultaneously regenerates the hydrogen, allowing it to be recycled directly back into the process. By recovering both heat and hydrogen internally, the system aims for minimized CO2 emissions during operation.
Globally, steel recycling generates 7–10 million tonnes of EAFD each year—a vast "urban mine" of valuable materials. By unlocking this resource, Dust2Value can help establish a new European value chain for secondary raw materials, strengthening the EU's strategic autonomy in critical materials like zinc and providing a high-quality recycled iron product for steelmakers. This circular solution could turn a costly waste stream into a revenue source worth millions of euros annually while significantly reducing landfill dependency. Widespread adoption of this technology has the potential to cut CO2 emissions substantially compared to conventional treatment routes.
To achieve this vision, the Dust2Value project will build and operate a demonstrator plant to prove the technology’s effectiveness using different types of steel dust; validate the complete process chain to ensure the final products meet market quality standards; develop a sophisticated computer simulation—a "digital twin"—to optimize performance for industrial conditions; and deliver a full technical and economic blueprint for commercialization, paving the way for the first industrial-scale plants to be deployed.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project's core process was designed for maximum efficiency, centering on a system that regenerates and recycles hydrogen internally. This approach uses a counter-current flow of hydrogen against the dust within the kiln, with staged cooling zones that re-oxidize the zinc vapor using steam. This in-situ hydrogen regeneration is a key innovation, drastically reducing the need for fresh hydrogen and minimizing heat loss, which directly improves both the climate and cost performance of the technology.
To ensure the process is robust enough for industrial reality, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the raw materials. We surveyed dust generation across various EU countries and performed detailed chemical and mineralogical characterisation on fifteen representative dust samples. This fundamental work provides the data needed to reliably treat diverse real-world waste streams.
Based on these findings, we validated a simple but effective pre-treatment step. By washing the dusts with water, we consistently removed harmful chlorides and other elements that could compromise the process or product quality. This step improves the quality of the final products and simplifies the downstream gas-cleaning requirements.
With the process chemistry defined, the concept was translated into a complete engineering design for the prototype plant. The detailed engineering for the kiln and its integrated hydrogen loop is completed. The structural and thermal integrity of the design has been validated using advanced computer simulations and rigorous safety analyses, establishing a safe and reliable operational framework ahead of construction.
To optimize and control the process, we built the foundation for a "digital twin." Through laboratory experiments that measured reaction speeds, we created the first kinetics datasets for this specific process. This allows our predictive models to go beyond simple theory to forecast the real-world rate of zinc extraction and iron metallisation inside the kiln, a critical step for achieving precise control and high efficiency.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The core innovation in Dust2Value is a sealed, hydrogen-based process that regenerates its own hydrogen. By combining the reduction of the dust with in-situ re-oxidation of the zinc vapor using steam, the process creates a circular gas loop. This design is engineered to produce two valuable outputs from a single waste stream and to better handle variations in the incoming material.
Our research has also established a pragmatic and scalable improvement to the process: a halogenide removal step that effectively removes corrosive salts and other contaminants from the dust before treatment. This step significantly raises the quality of both the final zinc and iron products. Combined with internal heat recovery and lower operating temperatures, our process modelling indicates the potential to lower the energy demand for zinc recovery by roughly one third compared to conventional methods. This critical performance metric will be validated in upcoming campaigns with our pilot-scale demonstrator.
Bringing this technology to market requires several clear next steps. After the current project, the process reliability must be proven at a larger scale using diverse dusts from industrial partners. The 'digital twin' we work on needs to be integrated for smart process control to optimize performance and ensure stability. Finally, successful uptake depends on securing commercial partners for the recycled zinc and iron products and establishing a supportive policy and standards framework for the safe industrial use of hydrogen recycling technologies.

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