Over the last few decades, the European steel industry has focused its efforts on the improvement of by-product recovery and quality, based not only on existing technologies, but also on the development of innovative sustainable solutions. These activities have led the steel industry to save natural resources and to reduce its environmental impact, resulting in being closer to its “zero-waste” goal. In addition, the concept of Circular Economy has been recently strongly emphasised at a European level. The opportunity is perceived of improving the environmental sustainability of the steel production by saving primary raw materials and costs related to by-products and waste landfilling. The aim of this review paper was to analyse the most recent results on the reuse and recycling of by-products of the steelmaking cycles as well as on the exploitation of by-products from other activities outside the steel production cycle, such as alternative carbon sources (e.g., biomasses and plastics). The most relevant results are identified and a global vision of the state-of-the-art is extracted, in order to provide a comprehensive overview of the main outcomes achieved by the European steel industry and of the ongoing or potential synergies with other industrial sectors.

Digitalization represents a paramount process started some decades ago, but which received a strong acceleration by Industry 4.0 and now directly impacts all the process and manufacturing sectors. It is expected to allow the European industry to increase its production efficiency and its sustainability. In particular, in the energy-intensive industries, such as the steel industry, digitalization concerns the application of the related technologies to the production processes, focusing on two main often overlapping directions: Advanced tools for the optimization of the production chain and specific technologies for low-carbon and sustainable production. Furthermore, the rapid evolution of the technologies in the steel sector require the continuous update of the skills of the industrial workforce. The present review paper, resulting from a recent study developed inside a Blueprint European project, introduces the context of digitalization and some important definitions in both the European industry and the European iron and steel sector. The current technological transformation is depicted, and the main developments funded by European Research Programs are analyzed. Moreover, the impact of digitalization on the steel industry workforce are considered together with the foreseen economic developments.