News from the IOB

The IOB at the EOSC and CTSI Conference in Vienna

From May 20 to 22, 2025, our col­le­agues Han­nah Kai­ser and Moritz Eick­hoff repre­sen­ted the IOB at the 10th Euro­pean Oxy­gen Steel­ma­king Con­fe­rence and the 7th Con­fe­rence on Clean Tech­no­lo­gies in the Steel Indus­try in Vien­na. The con­fe­ren­ces focu­sed on exchan­ging new infor­ma­ti­on and tech­no­lo­gies in the field of oxy­gen steelmaking.

The com­bi­ned con­fe­ren­ce’s sci­en­ti­fic pro­gram, held at the Apo­the­ker­trakt of Schön­brunn Palace, fea­tured pre­sen­ta­ti­ons on new deve­lo­p­ments in con­ver­ter tech­no­lo­gy, the tran­si­ti­on to elec­tric steel pro­duc­tion, COreduc­tion in iron and steel pro­duc­tion, and Indus­try 4.0. On the first day, the con­fe­rence focu­sed on con­ver­ter tech­no­lo­gy deve­lo­p­ments, ener­gy savings, and ener­gy effi­ci­en­cy opti­miza­ti­on. Par­ti­ci­pan­ts could use the cof­fee and lunch breaks bet­ween pre­sen­ta­ti­ons to dis­cuss the various sci­en­ti­fic topics.

The evening con­cluded with a wel­co­me recep­ti­on whe­re par­ti­ci­pan­ts could get to know each other better.

On Wed­nes­day, the con­fe­rence began with inte­res­t­ing key­note pre­sen­ta­ti­ons on CO reduc­tion in iron and steel pro­duc­tion, the effects of a chan­ged raw mate­ri­al mix on the BOF pro­cess and secon­da­ry metall­ur­gy, Indus­try 4.0, and the switch to elec­tric steel pro­duc­tion. As part of this, our col­le­ague Han­nah Kai­ser pre­sen­ted the joint pro­ject “Flex­L­ad­le­Heat,” car­ri­ed out in coope­ra­ti­on with the Insti­tu­te for Rock Metall­ur­gy at RWTH Aachen Uni­ver­si­ty, Badi­sche Stahl­wer­ke, and Badi­sche Stahl Engi­nee­ring. This pro­ject inves­ti­ga­tes using hydro­gen and ammo­nia fle­xi­bly in lad­le fur­naces in the steel indus­try to redu­ce CO emissions.

The day ended with a con­fe­rence din­ner at a Vien­nese wine tavern. This pro­vi­ded an oppor­tu­ni­ty for lively dis­cus­sion and net­wor­king among all con­fe­rence participants.

The com­bi­ned EOSC and CTSI con­fe­rence pro­vi­ded an excel­lent oppor­tu­ni­ty for sci­en­tists, rese­ar­chers, plant engi­neers, and indus­tri­al users to interact. 

We would like to thank the Aus­tri­an Socie­ty for Metall­ur­gy and Mate­ri­als (ASMET) for orga­ni­zing the conference.