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.
