We’re pleased to share the HELIOS project 4th peer reviewed article publication by Mohammad Jafarzadeh (Doctoral Researcher at Montanuniversitaet Leoben) in Matériaux & Techniques! The full article is available here:
https://doi.org/10.1051/mattech/2026003
Abstract
By the end of 2050, the European Union aimed to decrease the carbon footprint (CO and CO2) considerably. It was targeted to achieve 80–95% less than the level of emissions in 1990. Hydrogen, as a clean reducing agent, can eliminate the carbon footprint from the steel industry considerably (up to 95%). However, some factors, such as the endothermic nature of H2 reduction and the thermodynamic resistance of some high-temperature mineral oxides against reduction by H2, hinder such achievement. Hydrogen plasma smelting reduction (HPSR), as an alternative promising method compared to H2 and conventional carbon-based reduction methods, has emerged both in the lab and on a pilot plant scale in the current years. The direct reduction of chromite ore by HPSR, containing both Cr2O3 and Fe2O3 (and FeO), enables single-step production of low-carbon ferrochromium or stainless steel. Chromium is the major alloyed element of stainless steel produced mainly through the primary metallurgy methods from chromite ore. The ore contains different mineral oxides in the spinel phases that complicate the reduction process. Therefore, the study of different factors on the reduction of pure Cr2O3 is the first step in evaluating the feasibility of ferrochromium production by HPSR. The plasma state provides enough reactivity and heat via the excited species of hydrogen to overcome the mentioned kinetic (THP = 5000-25000 K) and thermodynamic (ΔG°HP ≤ −1500 kJ/mol) obstacles. In this paper, the in-situ evaluation of reduction degree via hydrogen by optimizing gas flow rate, melting temperature, and activity on pure Cr2O3 and the mixture of it with selective acidic and basic fluxes in different crucibles (structural steel and magnesia-chromite refractory) was studied. Moreover, the required thermodynamic assessments for the experiment were conducted to clarify the feasibility of the reduction process.
Acknowledgments
The author also thanks the HELIOS—HORIZON-MSCA DN consortium for financial support and collaborative exchanges.
Funding
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 101120068.
