Finland’s Metso Outotec has inaugurated its Circored™ hydrogen pre-reduction pilot plant in Frankfurt, Germany, underscoring a growing push to decarbonize steel production through direct reduction technologies.
The facility, which began operations this month, is designed to validate the commercial readiness of Circored™, Metso’s proprietary process that uses hydrogen as the sole reductant for iron ore.
Steelmaking is responsible for roughly 7% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and the sector’s decarbonization hinges on replacing coal- and gas-based processes with low-carbon alternatives. Traditional direct reduced iron (DRI) routes typically depend on natural gas, while blast furnaces rely on coke, both releasing substantial CO₂. Circored™ replaces those inputs with hydrogen and employs electrically heated reactors, supported by gas cleaning and recirculation systems to recover hydrogen and minimize dust. Metso reports that the pilot plant operates with near-zero direct carbon emissions, offering a potential pathway for industrial-scale fossil-free ironmaking.
According to Parizat Pandey, Metso’s director of DRI, the Frankfurt site will focus on process optimization and generation of operational data to inform engineering for larger commercial units.
Circored™ is also designed for flexible downstream integration. Reduced iron from the process can be fed into Metso’s own DRI smelting furnace or paired with other electric smelting technologies already in use by steelmakers. This modularity could lower barriers to adoption by enabling plants to retrofit existing assets rather than overhaul entire production lines.
Hydrogen-based reduction remains capital-intensive and contingent on the availability of affordable renewable electricity to produce green hydrogen at scale. Analysts note that, while pilot projects are proliferating, full commercialization will require both cost declines in hydrogen production and coordinated investments in renewable power, storage, and transport infrastructure. By collecting operational data and stress-testing system performance, Metso’s Frankfurt plant is intended to bridge that gap and provide a technical foundation for industrial deployment.
The launch adds momentum to Europe’s broader strategy to cut industrial emissions, which includes funding mechanisms for hydrogen and carbon-free steel technologies.
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