Towards Fossil-free Steel

FFS project will enable the transition from carbon intensive steelmaking towards fossil-free steel production. Utilization of electricity and hydrogen instead of carbon in steelmaking provides opportunity for large-scale CO₂ emission mitigation. Due to the growing climate regulations, carbon neutral steel will be in the interest of industries applying steel, increasing the demand of competitive carbon neutral steel in the future. FFS consortium wants to promote Finnish steel export and hydrogen economy, and at the same time contribute heavily to Finnish and EU climate targets. Steel industry is responsible for 7% of the total CO₂ emissions in Finland. A significant reduction of the emissions within the steel industry can contribute greatly to achieving the Finnish carbon-neutrality goal by 2035. The Finnish target is stricter than the EU-target: A Green Deal on Steel aims to reduce CO₂ emissions of the EU steel production by 30% by 2030 compared to the 2018 level and targets a carbon-neutral steel production in EU by 2050. FFS project will bring new research-based knowhow, process innovations, development of process practices and reassessment of circular economy that are required for realising fossil-free steel production. The transition to fossil-free steelmaking creates the need to find solutions for large-scale clean hydrogen production, storage and supply. In FFS, VTT has a key role in developing the hydrogen value chain and will study the options to supply hydrogen to large-scale end-users in Finland. In addition, the electrification of industrial kilns will be studied via development of new electricity assisted burners. Furthermore investigation of fossil-free steelmaking residuals (slags, sludges, dusts) and their utilization methods will be conducted. The FFS consortium forms a valuable value network to commercialise the developed technologies.