Fossil Free Steel Applications, Phase 2 - FOSSA2

Context

The European steelmaking and mechanical engineering industries have an important role to play in addressing the challenges arising from the new long-term strategy on climate protection, announced by the European Commission in November 2018, and aimed at fulfilling the targets of the UN’s 2015 Paris Agreement. Accordingly, it calls for a climate-neutral Europe by 2050.

With regard to Finland’s contribution to accomplishing climate neutrality, far-reaching changes and developments in the steel industry will be crucial in achieving the challenging targets, as evidenced by the exceptional emission targets set for metal production that will strongly impact the entire Finnish technology industry. In this context, Finland’s ambitious aim is to become carbon-neutral already by 2035 and carbon-negative soon thereafter.

Novelty

The FOSSA2 project is based on three totally new concepts:

Fossil-free steel’s value chain and recycling will change the logic and business models of existing companies and create some new ones for the fossil-free value chain. In this new world order, steel production and applications will become critical, requiring companies to renew their revenue logic towards value-driven thinking instead of solely cost-based pricing.

The idea of breakthrough steels and steel applications via sustainable production routes is to develop fossil-free 3rd and 4th generation hot- and cold-rolled high-strength steels. Furthermore, the aim is to establish fossil-free value chains within the Finnish metals industry. The developed novel steel grades will have a yield strength in the range of 700–2000 MPa and elongation of approximately 15–30%, combined with extremely good low-temperature toughness, weldability, formability, and high sustainability, without excessive use of expensive alloying elements. Several advanced process designs are envisaged for various innovative concepts such as direct quenched (and partitioned) steels, advanced medium-Mn steels, and nanostructured martensitic and bainitic steels. The impact of this work package will be unique in terms of realizing significant reductions in CO2 emissions through the development and use of novel fossil-free steels, actualization of the fossil-free value chain, and the design and use of lightweight structures, thereby enabling greater reductions in energy consumption and CO2 emissions than have been possible for a multitude of steel applications.

The concept of a virtual steel production platform enables virtual control and adjustment of the steel manufacturing chain. The entire production route of the novel steels can be studied on one platform that consists of several material and process models without the need for expensive development and time-consuming experimental work. The virtual steel platform will enable process and steel designs using the envisaged novel steels (processes & properties) and applications based on the requirements of the end-user, i.e., backward design. The impact of this research will be optimized to strengthen efficient processing routes for sustainable steel manufacturing.

Applying of rapid annealing to produce fossil-free steels - NOFO

The NOFO subproject at Tampere University investigates whether the effect of harmful trace elements can be eliminated with rapid annealing. Induction heating is used as the heating method. The aim is to eliminate the effect of trace elements by means of rapid annealing without negatively affecting formability. Since the trace elements also affects surface properties and subsequently on the quality of hot dip galvanized zinc coating, that effect is also studied. Part of the research will be carried out during a research visit to Swansea University in England.