Looking back: Highlights from our 2^nd project year

As our third project year begins, we want to take a moment to reflect on the milestones and progress we have achieved over the past twelve months. The 2^nd year of the HBI C-Flex project has been filled with fruitful teamwork and outstanding technical advancements.

🤝 Consortium meetings

Within the past year, we’ve held six consortium meetings joined by our Supportive Advisory Board, including one in-person meeting in Liège (Belgium). These meetings provided a great opportunity for in-depth dialogue and profound discussions and helped coordinating ongoing tasks as well as planning upcoming activities.

📚 Mid-term workshop

On February 25^th, 2025, we hosted a successful mid-term workshop. This event brought together over 70 experts and stakeholders to discuss innovative topics ranging from the reoxidation behaviour and stability of DRI and HBI to the use of green hydrogen and recycled metallurgical gases in steelmaking. Additionally, projects maximising H₂ enrichment in direct reduction shaft furnaces and ensuring the safe handling of H₂-based DRI, considering reactivity, passivation methods, and recycling aspects were discussed.

📰 Newsletters

To keep our stakeholders, Supportive Advisory Board and partners informed we published two newsletters in the last year and one special issue. These updates covered detailed insights into our work packages and our Supportive Advisory Board. The special issue was dedicated to Chris Barrington, former Chief Adviser at IIMA and one of the key figures behind the project. He reflected on the origins of the project, the technical and regulatory challenges it addresses, and the broader shifts transforming the steel industry, from hydrogen-based steelmaking to evolving global supply chains.

📄 First peer-reviewed paper

In July 2024, the team of K1-MET, especially main author Lina Kieush, published the first peer-reviewed paper in Metals by MDPI. The paper, titled “Reoxidation Behavior of the Direct Reduced Iron and Hot Briquetted Iron during Handling and Their Integration into Electric Arc Furnace Steelmaking: A Review” studies how direct reduced iron (DRI) and hot briquetted iron (HBI) are integrated into the steelmaking process using electric arc furnaces. It provides an overview of various DRI production techniques distinguished by different reactor types.

📝 Project review

A major milestone in the last year was our 1^st Project Review Meeting. We presented the current activities and results of our project. Our Project Officer and our external expert gave us their valuable feedback. This encouraged us to continue our efforts, and we want to thank all project partners for their precious contributions.

🎤 ESTEP Spring Dissemination Event

On 5 June 2025, Melanie Leitner from K1-MET GmbH presented our project at the ESTEP Spring Dissemination Event in Krakow. Her presentation demonstrated its objectives, key activities, and first experimental results.

🔗 Meet the partners

Last year, we launched our campaign “Partners of HBI C-Flex” to highlight the people working with dedication to achieve the goals of our project. We started with introducing the members of our consortium and their specific roles. Now, we’re expanding the spotlight to include the experts from our Supportive Advisory Board.