The European Steel Technology Platform Faces Resource Efficiency in its Strategic Research Agenda

Abstract

Steel is an fundamental material for a circular economy, as it is essential for the daily life and to the welfare of the society. It has therefore been recognized as a Key Enabling Technology. Steel can be found everywhere: most of the artifacts are partly or entirely made of steel or are manufactured from machines and tools made of steel. Such as most materials, its production involves significant consumptions of resources, energy, raw materials and logistics. However, it is fully recyclable, thus the steel which is produced today will be used also by future generations. Resource efficiency is an important topic for the European steel industry: it naturally lies in the operating practice of the standard production cycle, due to the recyclability of steel, the significant quantities of raw materials required for its production, the large volumes of by-products and the effort to reduce the energy consumption, to re-use by-product gases from the coke oven, blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace and to recovery the waste heat saving fossil fuel resources.. Further efforts and innovative approaches are demanded to improve resource efficiency. This paper presents how the Strategic Research Agenda of the European Steel Technology Platform addresses the different aspects of resource efficiency and highlights the challenges that the sector faces in terms of Research and Innovation fostering a sustainable steel production.