- New European research project aims to significantly reduce energy consumption and emissions in stainless steel recycling through innovative manufacturing technologies.
- The project will celebrate its official kick-off meeting at IMDEA Materials Institute in Madrid, Spain, on Wednesday, October 7.
The ECO-STEEL (Eco-Friendly Stainless Steel Production from Recycled Scrap) project, coordinated by IMDEA Materials Institute, has officially launched under the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) programme.
Bringing together expertise in metallurgy, materials science, process engineering and sustainability assessment, the project will develop novel approaches for transforming ferritic stainless steel scrap into high-quality products while substantially reducing the environmental impact of steel production.
Funded through the RFCS-2025 call, ECO-STEEL seeks to demonstrate alternative recycling routes that can reduce reliance on conventional remelting processes and support Europe’s transition towards a more circular, resource-efficient and low-carbon steel industry.
Alongside IMDEA Materials Institute, the project’s partners include Germany’s RWTH Aachen University, Oulu University and steelmaker Outokumpu from Finland, and Czechia’s COMTES FHT a.s. research and technology centre from Czechia.
Although recycling steel is considerably less carbon-intensive than producing steel from primary raw materials, most stainless steel recycling still relies on electric arc furnace (EAF) melting. While effective, these processes operate at temperatures exceeding 1,600°C and continue to require significant amounts of energy.
ECO-STEEL will investigate two innovative manufacturing routes designed to reduce both energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. Among these will be solid-state consolidation technologies which enable ferritic stainless steel scrap to be transformed directly into new products without a melting stage.
The second manufacturing route to be explored is Twin-Roll Strip Casting (TRSC), a near-net-shape manufacturing process that combines casting and rolling into a single operation, reducing the need for intermediate reheating steps.
Operating at temperatures between approximately 700°C and 1,100°C, these technologies have the potential to achieve up to 86% energy savings and 84% reductions in CO₂ emissions compared with conventional EAF-based recycling routes. The TRSC approach alone could reduce energy use and emissions by between 70% and 90%.
ECO-STEEL will directly contribute to the objectives of the European Green Deal and the wider transition towards a circular economy. By enabling local recycling loops, reducing transport requirements and increasing the value recovered from stainless steel scrap, the project aims to strengthen resource efficiency and support the decarbonisation of the European steel sector.