Austrian steelmaking group Voestalpine has developed an industrial scale process for carbon-neutral steel production without the use of fossil carbon and secured the intellectual property rights to the process from the European Patent Office, the company said on June 15.
The patent is valid in all major European steel manufacturing countries and specifically covers the production of sponge iron - direct reduced iron (DRI) or hot briquetted iron (HBI) - using green hydrogen and biogas in the direct reduction process.Europe's climate goals are facing the steel industry with profound technological challenges and the political objective...