The steel industry is an important engine for sustainable growth, added value, and high-quality employment within the European Union. It is committed to reducing its CO₂ emissions due to production by up to 50% by 2030 compared to 1990′s level by developing and upscaling the technologies required to contribute to European initiatives, such as the Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) and the European Green Deal (EGD). The Clean Steel Partnership (CSP, a public–private partnership), which is led by the European Steel Association (EUROFER) and the European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP), defined technological CO₂ mitigation pathways comprising carbon direct avoidance (CDA), smart carbon usage SCU), and a circular economy (CE). CE approaches ensure competitiveness through increased resource efficiency and sustainability and consist of different issues, such as the valorization of steelmaking residues (dusts, slags, sludge) for internal recycling in the steelmaking process, enhanced steel recycling (scrap use), the use of secondary carbon carriers from non-steel sectors as a reducing agent and energy source in the steelmaking process chain, and CE business models (supply chain analyses). The current paper gives an overview of different technological CE approaches as obtained in a dedicated workshop called “Resi4Future—Residue valorization in iron and steel industry: sustainable solutions for a cleaner and more competitive future Europe” that was organized by ESTEP to focus on future challenges toward the final goal of industrial deployment.

The EU steel industry accounts for a crude steel production of 140 Mt/y, provided by the integrated (57%) and electric (43%) routes, which respectively require up to 6.0 and 0.6 MWh/t_CrudeSteel of energy input, and emits on average 1.85 and 0.4 t_CO2/t_CrudeSteel. The mitigation of such CO₂ emissions is crucial, and would involve the direct avoidance of carbon, improvement of energy efficiency, and carbon capture. However, the environmental burden of the steel industry cannot be limited to this, given the very large amount (approximately 5 Mt) of residues landfilled every year in the EU. This practice cannot be sustained anymore, since it represents a detrimental waste of resources and burden to the environment. These aspects require prompt action to meet the Green Deal goals envisioned for 2030. This review paper aims to provide an overview of the main state-of-the-art technologies commercially (and not) available for the effective treatment of a wide variety of residues. To enrich this overview with further potential candidates towards a more sustainable steel manufacturing process, the combined application of two technologies (a plasma reactor and a RecoDust unit for the recovery of metals and minerals, respectively) at TRL 5-6 is also investigated here.

SDGs are playing an increasing role in defining sustainability paths for energy-intensive sectors. In particular, the steel sector is promoting several parallel initiatives as a key player sector in the European process industry. This work describes the major focal trends related to the sustainability of steel and presents the principal EU approaches and initiatives linked with the ESTEP action area. The core sustainability issues related to SDGs in the EU steel sector are presented with a particular focus on the quantification approaches. Then, the paper presents different areas for SDG implementation by single organizations in the EU context. Such areas provide an operational path for managing and implementing SDGs. In particular, the key areas include: (1) roadmapping initiatives with a focus on specific sustainability targets; (2) eco-labelling trends with reference to usage per label typology; (3) reporting initiatives by single organizations with a focus on specific SDGs; and (4) representative EU steel R&D projects related to selected sustainability targets. The discussion part focuses on a critical review of all presented areas to summarise the main paths in adopting SDGs targeted at the EU steel sector level. As the final outcome, prime emerging barriers are suggested as well as critical issues in implementing SDG-based sustainability targets.

This paper aims at providing an overview of the ways for residue valorization in the iron and steelmaking industry. The important role of recycling in iron and steelmaking as a cornerstone for achieving a cleaner and resource-efficient potential is described. Several research results concerning metals and metal oxides (scrap, scale), slags, dusts, process gases, and water recycling from the iron and steelmaking process are reviewed here, aiming to detect those research gaps that still need implementation and suggest potential approaches toward potential solutions. Through a comprehensive evaluation, several possibilities are provided to incorporate effectively in metallurgical processes the bio-based or bio-derived carbon materials, namely biomass, biochar, biocoke, and polymers from waste plastics to reduce the dependence on fuel and reducing agents from fossil sources, and therefore mitigating the related environmental impact of the steel industry. Eventually, this review highlights the importance of embracing circular economy (CE) principles in iron and steelmaking, along with considering opportunities for industrial symbiosis (IS) and exploring the role of digitalization and digital solutions in recycling practices.

The term “Biodiversity” derives from a contraction of “biological diversity” and commonly refers to a measure of the variety of organisms, which are present in different ecosystems, by considering genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation within an area, biome, or planet. Biodiversity is receiving an ever-increasing attention at many levels of European society as well as from many industrial sectors, and a variety of actions are being put in place in order to protect, preserve and increase it. The present paper provides examples of the capabilities and potentials of the steel sector with respect to biodiversity. In effect, steel is a valuable and fundamental structural material in order to develop measures and systems for protection of biodiversity. On the other hand, biodiversity can represent for the steel industry not only a heritage to preserve, but, through its functional traits, it can become an opportunity, offering an ecosystem’s perspective to all industrial companies. In the paper, steel relevant topics and applications are analyzed leading to the conclusion that biodiversity should be exploited and can play a role with potentially relevant benefits both for the company and for local communities.