Goals

The European steelmaking and mechanical engineering industries have an important role to play in addressing the challenges arising from the new long-term strategy on climate protection, announced by the European Commission in November 2018, and aimed at fulfilling the targets of the UN’s 2015 Paris Agreement. Accordingly, it calls for a climate-neutral Europe by 2050.

With regard to Finland’s contribution to accomplishing climate neutrality, far-reaching changes and developments in the steel industry will be crucial in achieving the challenging targets, as evidenced by the exceptional emission targets set for metal production that will strongly impact the entire Finnish technology industry. In this context, Finland’s ambitious aim is to become carbon-neutral already by 2035 and carbon-negative soon thereafter.

The FOSSA2 project aims to initiate the transition towards a carbon-neutral Finland and conforms to an essential part of the strategic research agenda (SRA) of the Association of Finnish Steel and Metal Producers. Additionally, there are three other national projects supporting the realization of the SRA: 1) TOCANEM1/2, 2) NECOLEAP/Canelis, and 3) FFS1/2

The FOSSA2 project is closely connected to the FFS1/2 project, where fossil-free steelmaking is the prime focus. Hence, the FOSSA2 applications are envisioned based on the carbon-neutral steelmaking route. The work of the projects is linked together as follows:

  • Applications of FOSSA2 are envisioned based on hydrogen reduction and novel EAF (electric arc furnace) processes that will be developed in the FFS project.
  • Appropriate chemical compositions and high steel cleanliness must be achieved to satisfy the end-users’ needs (FFS), which will be accomplished via novel thermo-mechanical treatments, advanced designs, and workshop technologies (FOSSA2).
  • The new products affect the internal and external recycling of steel (FFS). Additionally, longer lifetimes and lightweight structures reduce CO2 emissions during steel applications (FOSSA2).
  • The impact of the projects is based mainly on the business change, sustainable growth, and advanced applications (FOSSA2).

The impacts of FOSSA2 can be divided into direct and indirect impacts.

• The annual target of FOSSA2 partners is estimated to be about €500 million (by the year 2030).

• The value of annually sold industrial products of the steel and engineering industry is about €36 billion, i.e., 40% of total industrial production (source: Statistics Finland). The target of FOSSA2 is to directly influence more than 10% of this industrial production (new products, processes, and business).

• Direct impact can be realized by allocating about 80% to exports (source: Statistics Finland).

• Results of FOSSA2 will enable reducing the weights of steel structures in moving equipment and thereby reduce CO2 emissions and raw material usage (estimated 5-8 million tons per annum in Finland) with enormous potential on a global scale. This is estimated to be realized during the years 2025-2050.

• The target of FFS is to decrease CO2 emissions by 4-7 million tons per annum using novel steelmaking technologies in the steel industry. This will enable a reduction of about 5% of the CO2 emissions in Finland.

• FOSSA2, FFS, and TOCANEM together can help influence emissions trading in Finland as high as 15%, and thus affect competitive advantage of €125 million per annum. This calculation is based on the carbon steel production that is about 5 million tons per annum, and an emission price change from €25 per ton of CO2 (year 2020) to €50 per ton (year 2035) (Source: IDDRI 2019).

The indirect business impacts summarize the future business possibilities, while the indirect social impacts include strategic competencies that are essential for society in the future:

• Novel business. The idea here is to create new, mainly value-based, business that requires novel competencies, especially in environment-related technologies. It can also boost the value chain from the research stage to end users for innovative applications.

• Technological leap. It points to sustainable technology for steel products, manufacturing, and end users’ business. The main idea is to develop new applications with optimized productivity and service life. Also, the virtual steel production combined with the relatively new concept termed as “Backward Design” can open new, modeling-based, business.

• Social benefit. FOSSA2 affirms cooperation between Finnish steel manufacturing companies in order to meet the end users’ needs and help understand the future challenges. It is amply clear that the project envisions enhanced special knowhow in Finland.