The proposed STEELANOL project is based on producing bioethanol via an innovative gas fermentation process using exhaust gases emitted by the steel industry. The proposal addresses the specific topic “Demonstrating advanced biofuel technologies” (LCE-12– 2014), under the call for competitive low-carbon energy in Horizon2020. The BF/BOF gaseous emissions are an unavoidable residue from the steelmaking process and are currently used for electricity production or being flared. Nevertheless, they can be advantageously used to produce bioethanol, thereby reducing the usage of fossil fuel molecules and thus significantly reducing GHG emissions. The bio-ethanol production would have a GHG impact that is over 65% lower compared to oil derived fuels STEELANOL’s main objective is to demonstrate the cost-effective production of sustainable bioethanol, with the purpose of assessing the valorisation of this ethanol biofuel as a fuel derivative for the transport sector. A demonstration plant of approximately 64,000 tons/ethanol per year will be built; the first of its kind in Europe, and the largest facility built to date utilizing this technology globally. ArcelorMittal is the lead partner of this project and proposal. The gas fermentation technology will be supplied by LanzaTech, the engineering work will be performed by Primetals, and E4Tech will develop the Life Cycle Assessment of the produced fuels. Several key players in the transport sector, Boeing, Virgin Atlantic, Mitsui, have expressed their strong interest and support for the project.

Torero will demonstrate a cost-, resource-, and energy-efficient technology concept for producing bioethanol from a wood waste feedstock, fully integrated in a large-scale, industrially functional steel mill: - Wood waste is converted to biocoal by torrefaction - Biocoal replaces fossil powdered coal in a steel mill blast furnace - Carbon monoxide in blast furnace exhaust fumes is microbially fermented to bioethanol - Material and energy loops of the process are closed to a very large degree Every steel mill that implements this concept will be able to produce at least 80 million litres of bioethanol per year. This project creates a value chain for wood waste, which currently has no attractive applications. The technology concept is open ended: in the future, stakeholders may replicate the concept with other feedstocks and for producing other types of fuels. The business case the Torero project will produce a competitive process for non-food feedstock bioethanol production. Compared with the current first generation production based cellulosic bio-ethanol solution the Torero innovation the OPEX of Torero is 1/3 lower with a same CAPEX. This will allow scale up of torrefaction technology when successfully demonstrated. Most importantly, together with sister project Steelanol, Torero will be the only H2020 project to demonstrate a biofuel production process that is integrated in an existing, fully functional large-scale industrial facility. All other H2020 solutions will need to be newly built if they ever reach full industrial scale. Torero is add-on technology that can be used to upgrade existing facilities of the steel sector, an industry that is actively scouting for technological solutions to make its production processes more sustainable. The consortium consist of full value chain, industry ArcelorMittal and Van Gansewinkel, two expert research organisations Joanneum Research and Chalmers Technical University and torrefaction technology supplier Torr-Coal.

RecHycle's goal is to implement a gas hub, capable of mixing metallurgic gases produced on site with or without external (green) hydrogen sources. This is to be fed ultimately into the Blast Furnace and a future DRI furnace to sustainably produce green steel. The project will demonstrate a cost-efficient solution to decrease carbon emissions by initiating a new industrial symbiosis between and within the steel industry, chemical industry and renewable energy sources (e.g. wind or solar to obtain green electricity or hydrogen). The project will contribute in the shift towards a circular economy where waste products are valorised to the maximum of their potential. Furthermore, the project is to serve as a stepping stone towards further development of synergies between companies within the North Sea Port industrial area, thus creating new opportunities for innovation and economic activities. Challenges to be addressed are the dynamic optimization of gas mixtures and flows, minimizing risks of hydrogen on material embrittlement, ceramic feed-inlet (Tuyeres) within the furnaces, the quality of the produced steel and the (future) material scrap streams of the DRI. RecHycle is to be executed through a consortium of 6 partners from 4 different countries including an industrial partner that is world leading in the steel manufacturing industry and 5 research partners specialized in hydrogen-based studies.

INITIATE proposes a novel symbiotic process to produce urea from steel residual gases. The project will demonstrate a reduction in; primary energy intensity of 30%; carbon footprint of 95%; the raw material intensity of 40%; and waste production of 90%. Additional to this level of reduction, the concept represents a positive business case. INITIATE will demonstrate operating reliability and technology-based innovations in a real industrial setting at TRL7 by producing urea NH3 from steel residual gases as part of three test campaigns spanning six weeks each. The reduction in primary energy intensity, carbon footprint, raw material intensity and waste production will be assessed and verified on a regional and European level by advanced dynamic modelling and Life Cycle Assessment commiserated with ISO 14404 guidelines. The project will develop a commercial implementation roadmap for immediate deployment of INITIATE after project conclusion and for ensuring roll-out of INITIATE and similar symbiotic systems. Designing a robust and bankable first-of-a-kind commercial plant to produce urea from residual steel gases will allow implementation after project conclusion. Long term roll-out will be enabled by defining collaborative strategy for stakeholders alignment to implement INITIATE and similar symbiotic systems. Finally, effective and inclusive communication and dissemination of project results are maximized by organizing summer schools and creation of Massive Open Online Course. INITIATE will take advantage of a consortium spanning the full value chain, including major steel and urea industrial players (Arcelor Mittal, SSAB, Stamicarbon, NextChem), functional material suppliers (Johnson Matthey, Kisuma Chemicals), multi-disciplinary researchers (TNO, POLIMI, Radboud University) and experienced promoters of CCUS, circularity and symbiosis topics to public (CO2 Value Europe).

Today, the European Union?s steel sector is a modern industry with its main customer base found within the EU home markets, particularly in high-end segments. However, challenges remain to keep the EU steel sector both competitive at a global level and climate-neutral, in line with the European Green Deal and the CleanSteel Partnership?s vision. The scrap usage in steelmaking is a common practice to improve the process? sustainability, as it decreases the use of virgin raw materials and boosts the circularity of the sector (decreasing CO2 emissions and electivity consumption). Nevertheless, the current trend in the EU scrap market points at a slight decrease in the pre-consumer scrap and an increase in the short- and long-term of the post-consumer scrap stream, due to an increase in steel consumption. Nowadays, these ?low-quality? scrap streams are not suitable for most applications, thus limiting their use in steelmaking. In order to increase the steel scrap recycling capacity and energy efficiency, while keeping EU competitive and safe in terms of raw materials imports, energy consumption and climate change impact, innovative technologies to ?clean? the scrap before it reaches the steel furnaces need to be implemented. CAESAR gathers up steelmakers, technology developers and research centers in a joint effort to validate, at full-size industrial scale, integrated scrap upgrading, sorting and characterization technologies, thus enabling to untap volumes of low-quality scrap streams in Europe, while keeping a high-quality product and generating valorization routes for all the non-ferrous fractions obtained, towards a zero waste steel sector.