During the spring of 2026, representatives of several EU-funded projects working on sustainable steelmaking met together five times to exchange experiences, discuss common challenges, and look for possible synergies between their projects. The meetings brought together researchers and communication representatives from HEPHAESTUS, HELIOS, H2PlasmaRed, and HyInHeat, each working on different parts of the steel value chain.

The discussions involved:
• H2PlasmaRed, represented by Ekinsu Akdoğan, Annelies Malfliet and Ionut Popa (KU Leuven), working on CO2-free steelmaking routes based on hydrogen plasma technology and the valorisation of industrial sidestreams.
• HELIOS, represented by Annelies Malfliet and Ionut Popa (KU Leuven), focusing on hydrogen metallurgy for climate-neutral steel production.
• HEPHAESTUS, represented by Liuba Lukina, focusing on the valorisation of EAF and AOD dusts and other steelmaking residues.
• HyInHeat, represented by Akhilesh Swarnakar (ESTEP), working on downstream processing technologies related to industrial heating and decarbonisation.

The main goal of these exchanges was simple: to better understand what sustainable steelmaking could realistically look like in Europe, and what lessons the projects could learn from each other.

One thing became clear very quickly. There is no single technology that will solve the challenge alone. Sustainable steelmaking will require a combination of hydrogen-based production routes, electrification, circular use of resources, industrial integration, and realistic economic implementation.

Although the projects focus on different parts of the steelmaking process, many common themes appeared repeatedly during the discussions.

One important topic was circularity and resource efficiency. HEPHAESTUS brought into the discussions the challenge of steelmaking residues such as EAF and AOD dusts, slags, and sludges. These materials are often treated as waste, even though they contain valuable metals such as iron, chromium, nickel, and zinc.

A lesson from HEPHAESTUS is that future residue valorisation cannot focus only on recovering one single metal, such as zinc. Instead, more integrated approaches are needed, where several valuable products can be recovered from the same residue stream. These may include metal alloys, zinc products, mineral wool feedstocks, and other secondary raw materials. Another lesson concerning residue valorisation was that it should not be treated as a separate side activity disconnected from steel production itself. Circularity needs to become part of the overall design of future steelmaking systems. This approach strongly connected with the other three projects as well.

Another important lesson concerned logistics and industrial integration. The discussions showed that even very promising technologies may struggle if transport costs, infrastructure, feedstock availability, or regional industrial ecosystems are not properly considered. This is especially relevant for hazardous steelmaking dusts, where transport can become one of the biggest economic challenges.

Beyond the technical discussions, the meetings also opened broader reflections on possible future collaboration. The participants discussed the idea of jointly preparing an opinion paper bringing together lessons learned from the different projects and contributing to wider discussions on the future of sustainable steelmaking in Europe. Whether this publication will eventually materialise remains open, but the exchanges clearly showed the value of stronger cooperation between projects working on complementary aspects of steel decarbonisation and circularity.

Overall, the meetings demonstrated that many of the challenges faced by the projects are very similar. Questions related to scale-up, industrial feasibility, infrastructure, system integration, circularity, and uncertainty management appeared again and again across the discussions.

Projects such as HELIOS, H2PlasmaRed, HEPHAESTUS, and HyInHeat each focus on different pieces of the puzzle. Together, however, they help create a more realistic and complete picture of what the future European steel sector could look like.