19th of February 2026

Monika Häuselmann, Lukas Schmidt, K1-MET
Jonas van Bracht, BFI

 

Decarbonisation Technologies for the Future of Steel Production

The iron and steel industry is at the forefront of the transition towards climate neutrality, facing the challenge of significantly reducing CO₂ emissions while maintaining competitiveness and ensuring a skilled workforce for the future. During the SUPER Project webinar on decarbonisation technologies, experts presented the main technological pathways that are expected to transform steel production over the coming decades.

Several promising routes are being developed and deployed to support the industry's transition. These include low-carbon Blast Furnace-Basic Oxygen Furnace (BF-BOF) configurations with hydrogen injection and carbon capture technologies, hydrogen-based Direct Reduction (DRI), Electric Arc Furnaces (EAF) powered by renewable electricity, Electric Smelting Furnaces (ESM), Hydrogen Plasma Smelting Reduction (HPSR), and emerging Iron Ore Electrolysis technologies. Each pathway offers different levels of CO₂ mitigation potential, technological maturity, infrastructure requirements, and resource demands.

A key finding is that no single technology will deliver the decarbonisation of the steel sector on its own. Instead, a combination of complementary solutions, supported by renewable electricity, green hydrogen, circular use of resources, and Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS), will be required to achieve substantial emissions reductions by 2050.

The webinar also presented the ongoing work of the SUPER project, which combines technology assessment, stakeholder consultation, dissemination activities, and skills development to support a sustainable and socially inclusive transition of the European steel industry. Through scenario analyses for 2030, 2040, and 2050, the project aims to identify feasible pathways for reducing emissions while addressing challenges related to energy supply, raw materials, infrastructure, and workforce requirements.

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