From October 29 to 31, 2024, our colleagues Christian Wuppermann, Nico Schmitz and Thomas Echterhof took part in the ESTEP Annual Event 2024 in Linz, Austria. The conference was held under the motto “H2 for Green Steel meets A Circular Economy driven by the European Steel” and offered numerous exciting presentations.
The conference, organized by the European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP), took place with over 140 participants at the host voestalpine Stahl in Linz, Austria. The conference began at noon on October 29 with welcome and opening speeches and a session on the production of green steel using hydrogen and a session on intelligent, efficient and circular resource management. The first day of the conference concluded with a celebration of ESTEP’s 20th anniversary.
The second day of the conference began with a welcoming speech by Herbert Eibensteiner, CEO of voestalpine, followed by a panel discussion on the current situation and transformation of the steel industry in Europe. The following technical presentations were divided into sessions on resource efficiency and industrial symbiosis as well as the circular economy in the European steel sector. This second day ended with a city tour of Linz and the conference dinner in the old town of Linz.
The third and final day of the conference included a special session on the use of hydrogen in process heat generation, organized as part of the EU HyInHeat project. The session was moderated by Thomas Echterhof and Nico Schmitz presented the HyInHeat project and represented it in the panel discussion. A total of eight EU projects were represented and took part in the presentation of the demonstrators in the projects as well as a lively discussion on cross-project topics such as the definition of KPIs, the use of digital tools and NOx emissions and emission limits.
In the regular session following the special session, Christian Wuppermann presented the results of the FlexHeat2Anneal project entitled “Fuel flexible self-recuperative burners for radiant tube heating systems”.
Our thanks go to the European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP) for organizing the whole event and for the opportunity to present so many EU projects dealing with hydrogen in process heat generation to such an interested audience!