Towards Fossil-free Steel

In Finland, steel industry is responsible for 7% of the total CO2
emissions. To support Finland’s target of being carbon neutral by 2035,
the steel industry has stepped up and aims for major reduction of its
CO2 emissions. Due to the high level of maturity of current carbon
intensive processes, a large-scale CO2 mitigation is not possible by
further process development. The ambition of the FFS project is to take a
significant leap away from carbon intensive steelmaking towards
fossil-free steel production. Utilization of electricity and hydrogen
instead of carbon is in the core in the transition to carbon-neutral
steelmaking.

In the FFS project, research activities are operated under following topics:

WP 1 – Carbon-neutral steelmakingWP 2 – Clean energyWP 3 – Fossil-free materials

Main research topic of Process Metallurgy Research Unit in FFS
include modelling of fossil-free steelmaking routes, studies on
electrical melting processes, hydrogen reduction of iron, use of biochar
in multiple steelmaking applications and scale formation in slab/strip
reheating based on fossil-free energy.

The FFS project is a part of the strategic research agenda of the
Association of Finnish Steel and Metal Producers which supports the
carbon-neutrality goal of Finland.