Technologies, materials and constraints in one list, because a reader asking what a sector depends on is asking one question. 16 in total, of which 4 are materials — shown on 6 rows, because 2 of them appear in two lists on separate edges.
Technologies
CO2 transport and storage early-commercial
The pipelines, ships, terminals and permitted geological stores that a captured tonne has to reach before it counts as abated, and which no single site that captures can build for itself.
- Readiness
- early-commercial — Captured CO2 from Brevik is shipped and stored under the Norwegian Longship chain, which is the first full chain in Europe to take third-party industrial CO2. One chain in service is early-commercial. source (2025-06-18)
- Deployed by
- 3D — DMX demonstration in Dunkirk
Direct reduction with an electric furnace demonstration
Iron ore is reduced in the solid state with gas rather than smelted with coke in a blast furnace, and the resulting iron is melted in an electric furnace. It is the route Europe's integrated sites are converting to, and it is being built to run on natural gas first and hydrogen later, which is why the conversion and the fuel are two different questions with two different timetables.
- Readiness
- demonstration — Full-scale units are under construction in Europe and none is operating: 2.5 Mt at Duisburg, 1.9 Mt at Salzgitter, and the Boden site. Under construction is demonstration, the same reading applied to the oxyfuel kilns in cement. source (2023-07-20)
- Deployed by
- Blastr Inkoo, SSAB Luleå, SSAB Oxelösund, Tata Steel IJmuiden, ArcelorMittal Duisburg, ArcelorMittal Dunkerque, ArcelorMittal Gent, Stegra Boden, ArcelorMittal Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt conversion, SALCOS stage one, tkH2Steel, AG der Dillinger Hüttenwerke Dillingen, Saarstahl Völklingen, ArcelorMittal Asturias (Gijón)
Hydrogen direct reduction pilot
The reducing gas is hydrogen rather than natural gas, so what leaves the furnace is water rather than CO2. It is the only route that takes the chemistry of ironmaking to near zero, and it is separated from the conversion itself because every European unit under construction is being commissioned on natural gas and switched later.
- Readiness
- pilot — The HYBRIT pilot at Luleå made the world's first hydrogen-reduced sponge iron in 2021, around 100 tonnes of it, and no full-scale unit is yet running on hydrogen anywhere in Europe. One unit being tested is pilot. source (2021-06-21)
- Abatement
- 90 % of ironmaking CO2 emissions — The partners state the initiative eliminates around 90% of the emissions of steelmaking. It is the route's design claim rather than a measured figure from an operating unit, which is what pilot readiness means.
- Depends on
- Renewable hydrogen supply
- Deployed by
- Blastr Inkoo, GravitHy Fos sur Mer, Liberty Steel Dunkerque DRI plant, HyIron - GEiSt, HYBRIT Gallivare sponge, ArcelorMittal Duisburg, ArcelorMittal Dunkerque, Stegra Spain, ArcelorMittal Gent, Stegra Boden, GravitHy Kristinestad, SALCOS stage one, tkH2Steel, AG der Dillinger Hüttenwerke Dillingen, Saarstahl Völklingen, ArcelorMittal Asturias (Gijón), HYBRIT pilot
Renewable hydrogen supply demonstration
The electrolysers, power contracts and pipelines that have to deliver hydrogen at industrial volume and at a price the iron pays for, and which no single steel site can build for itself. It stands beside CO2 transport and storage as the other thing that sector is waiting for rather than doing. IT IS NOW SHARED. Steel reached it as a dependency; the hydrogen dataset reaches it as the thing being built, so the technology carries both sectors rather than being duplicated under a second name.
- Readiness
- demonstration — The largest unit built for a European steel site, 740 MW at Boden, has all 37 of its modules in place and has not been commissioned. Built and not operating is demonstration. source (2026-04-04)
- Deployed by
- Liberty Steel Dunkerque DRI plant, Stegra Spain, Stegra Boden, SALCOS stage one, tkH2Steel, HYBRIT pilot
Carbon capture on blast-furnace gas pilot
CO2 is separated from the gases a blast furnace gives off, which leaves the ironmaking route in place and treats its output instead. It is the competitor to conversion rather than a part of it: a site that captures keeps the asset it has, and a site that converts writes it off.
- Readiness
- pilot — The DMX unit on blast-furnace gas at Dunkirk is a pilot and has run stably since 2023; no full-scale capture unit is operating or under construction on a European blast furnace. Cement reached early-commercial on one operating industrial plant, and steel has none — the two readiness levels are different facts about different applications, which is why they are different nodes. source (2024-03-14)
- Depends on
- CO2 transport and storage
- Deployed by
- Marcegaglia AdriatiCO2 Ravenna, 3D — DMX demonstration in Dunkirk
Electric arc furnace on scrap commercial
Steel is remelted from scrap in an electric furnace, with no ironmaking step and therefore none of its CO2. It is not an emerging route — it is already two fifths of European output — and what limits it is how much scrap of the right quality Europe collects and keeps, not whether the furnace works.
- Readiness
- commercial — Just over 40% of EU steel already comes out of this route. Commercial is what a route that is two fifths of an industry's output is. source (2025-09-29)
- Deployed by
- Tata Steel Port Talbot, ArcelorMittal Méditerranée Fos sur Mer, Metinvest Piombino, greentec steel Donawitz, greentec steel Linz
Constraints
market Green premium against willingness to pay
Steel made without a blast furnace costs more than the steel it replaces, and it is sold into construction and vehicle chains where the buyer is several steps removed from whoever carries the climate commitment, so the premium has to be pulled through by procurement and product rules rather than by demand.
- relieves iaa:LM-03b×1The one provision in the register that puts a volume share on low-carbon steel by name, which is what turns a premium product into a market rather than a pilot order.
- relieves iaa:LM-03a×1The duty on the buying side of the same rule: public procurement has to apply the Annex II Part I requirements, and steel is the first product listed there.
- relieves ets:CBAM-01×1Withdrawing free allocation raises the cost of blast-furnace steel, which narrows the gap the low-carbon product has to close.
- relieves iaa:LM-06a×0.5Support schemes carry the same requirements, widening the pull beyond public contracts.
- relieves iaa:LM-01×0.5A premium can only be charged for a claim a buyer can check, and this is the provision that makes the low-carbon classification a verified one rather than a marketing term.
- relieves cbam:FIN-03×0.5Same-year certificates stop importers hedging the carbon cost forward, holding imported and domestic carbon costs closer together.
financial Conversion cost against site economics
Replacing an integrated site's ironmaking is a rebuild rather than a retrofit, and every European conversion that has gone ahead has done so with public money in the stack. Where the public share was withdrawn or the electricity price moved against it, the conversion stopped.
- 2 EUR billiontkH2Steel Duisburg — German federal and state fundingthyssenkruppprimary
- 700 EUR millionSALCOS stage one — German federal fundingSalzgitter AGprimary
- 300 EUR millionSALCOS stage one — State of Lower Saxony fundingSalzgitter AGprimary
- 1.5 EUR billionvoestalpine greentec steel — phase one investmentvoestalpineprimary
- 1.3 EUR billionArcelorMittal Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt — German subsidies declinedClean Energy Wiresecondary
Addressed by Direct reduction with an electric furnace, Electric arc furnace on scrap
- worsens ets:CBAM-01×0.5The same schedule that improves the case for converting raises the site's running cost before the conversion exists, on margins the conversion has to be financed from.
- relieves nzia:SP-02×0.5Strategic-project recognition shortens permitting and improves access to support, without providing capital. Boden holds it.
infrastructure Renewable hydrogen at volume and at a price
Every direct reduction unit being built in Europe is designed to run on hydrogen and is being commissioned on natural gas, because the hydrogen it would need does not yet arrive in the volume or at the price the iron can carry. The electrolysers, the power contracts and the pipes are built by other parties on other timetables than the furnace that depends on them.
- 740 MWStegra Boden — installed electrolyser capacityBioEnergy Timessecondary
Addressed by Renewable hydrogen supply
Nothing on the platform moves this one.
infrastructure CO2 transport and storage network
The route that keeps an existing blast furnace only counts as abatement once the captured tonne is stored, and the pipelines, terminals and permitted stores that get it there are the same ones the cement sector is waiting for. One network decides whether either sector's capture route works.
Addressed by CO2 transport and storage
- relieves nzia:CO2-02×1Puts a dated, pro-rata injection-capacity duty on oil and gas entities, which is the only measure in the register that obliges anyone to build the store a capture unit needs.
- relieves nzia:CO2-10×0.5Third-party access is what makes somebody else's store usable by a steel site, but it is qualified by economic feasibility.
political Dependence on revocable public support
Where the business case rests on a national support decision, either party can end it. Germany's largest planned conversion ended because the recipient handed the money back rather than because the funder withdrew it, which is the same dependence read from the other side.
- 1.3 EUR billionArcelorMittal Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt — German subsidies declinedClean Energy Wiresecondary
Nothing on the platform moves this one.
market Scrap supply and quality against electric furnace capacity
The electric furnace route is already two fifths of European output and is the cheapest way to make steel without ironmaking, so what limits it is not the furnace but the scrap: how much Europe collects, how clean it is, and how much of it leaves. Every new furnace announced competes for the same stream.
Addressed by Electric arc furnace on scrap
Nothing on the platform moves this one.