Steel and aluminium are essential metals for European industry, backed by a longstanding and proud history of production. However, these sectors are highly energy-intensive, requiring conspicuous amounts of energy for their production processes. To meet the ambitious goals of a greener Europe, the European steel and metal industries are deeply committed to investing in effective decarbonization technologies. The use of low-carbon hydrogen as fuel is one of the viable pathways for heavy industry to drastically cut its carbon footprint.
The HyInHeat Approach
Running from 2023 to 2027, the EU-funded HyInHeat project has placed this ambitious goal at its core by pioneering the integration of hydrogen as a fuel for industrial heating. Over its lifecycle, the project focused on 8 different demonstrators to redesign combustion and induction systems specifically for H2 firing. Beyond technological redesign, HyInHeat has developed vital techno-economic assessments to ensure these systems can transition from pilots to commercially viable industrial solutions. The project consortium bridges the entire value chain, bringing together engineering excellence, scientific research, and major industrial metal producers.
Come and Join Us!
As the HyInHeat project reaches its conclusion, the project partners invite you to register for our final event, proudly hosted within its most natural home, the European Hydrogen Week. This event is not merely a showcase of HyInHeat’s main outcomes, but a collaborative forum designed to explore the broader ecosystem of hydrogen in metallurgy.
Alongside our core results, the program features key cross-sector success stories, beginning with strategic outcomes from the EU-funded Clean Steel Partnership initiative, MaxH2DR. This project explores how maximizing hydrogen enrichment in direct reduction shaft furnaces serves as a critical, fundamental alternative pathway to completely eliminate coal from primary steel production, highlighting hydrogen’s even more essential role in future steelmaking. Furthermore, we will present insights from our sister EU initiative, the H2Al project, which focuses on hydrogen deployment in aluminium processing. To provide a comprehensive perspective, the event will also feature a dedicated presentation on the Novelis Latchford site, showcasing the landmark achievement of the UK’s first industrial-scale hydrogen fuel switching initiative in the aluminium industry.
The event will be bookended by two crucial panel discussions. The opening panel will feature a major policy dialogue focused on building the foundation for hydrogen investment, exploring how current regulatory gaps and market conditions challenge the commercial upscaling of these technologies in Europe. The closing panel will spotlight a vital, cross-sectorial outcome of the HyInHeat project by addressing how current NOx measurement methodologies designed for natural gas cannot simply be transposed to alternative fuels like hydrogen without producing misleading regulatory risks. Because this issue affects all heavy industries, this session is uniquely designed as a direct conversation between the technical experts who studied the problem and the regulators who will shape the final legislative response.
Who can participate?
Anyone interested in finding out more about the use of hydrogen as a fuel in the steel and aluminium sectors is welcome to attend. In particular, we invite policy makers, regulatory authorities, heavy industry representatives, energy managers, technical and scientific specialists, and members of the press to join us.
If you want to know even more about the project, you can also visit the HyInHeat team directly at the EU Pavilion throughout EU Hydrogen Week.
How to register:
The workshop is free of charge, but only registered participants will have access to the session room. Registration is open until 22nd October.
Please note that because this event takes place during EU Hydrogen Week, a double registration is mandatory to attend. You must secure your general access pass to EU Hydrogen Week through via the registration link here, and you must also register specifically for the HyInHeat final event to reserve your seat in the session here, or through the QR code below.