Focus on emissions

Hand steam for green steel

The smelter makes it possible to use ores with only a medium or low iron content for green steel production.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Primetals (2))

We explore the limits of what is possible in order to develop innovative solutions for the global metals industry, is Primetals' promise. And the plant manufacturer based in Linz is putting its money where its mouth is: With the "Green Smelter", a furnace has been developed that will help the heavy industry to reduce CO₂ emissions enormously.

When people talk about the steel industry, they think of blast furnaces - for now. This is because producers such as voestalpine and plant manufacturers such as Primetals are doing everything they can to make production greener. In Linz and Leoben, voestalpine is investing EUR 1.5 billion to reduce CO₂ emissions in steel production. Primetals is supplying the electric arc furnace for the plant in Upper Austria, making it part of Austria's largest climate protection project.

Awarded the state prize for innovation
Primetals is something of a jack of all trades when it comes to transforming the steel industry. The efforts of the Linz-based company were recognized at the State Prize for Innovation: the award went to the "Green Smelter", a furnace innovation for the production of green pig iron.

A large team from Primetals is working at full speed on the development.(Bild: Primetals)

The award was presented by Alexander Fleischanderl, Primetals' "Mister Green Steel", and Gerald Wimmer. The latter revealed that there is a lot of convincing to be done: "The steel industry is a very old industry. The bar for a completely new technology is very high."

"An incredible achievement"
What can the smelter do? It is an alternative to the electric arc furnace and is intended to replace it in iron and steel production. "It enables us to reduce CO₂ by up to 80 percent, which is an incredible achievement," enthuses Fleischanderl. The smelter is used for melting and the final reduction of directly reduced iron.