„Politics has set ambitious goals for the reduction of CO2 emissions. With greentec steel, we are making a contribution to meeting the targets.”
Herbert Eibenstiner, CEO voestalpine

According to Statista Research Department, in 2020 around 81 million tonnes of CO2 emissions were generated by people living in Austria, and companies and institutions registered in Austria. Industry and airlines were responsible for just over 30 million tonnes of this. The industrial operation which accounts for the largest share of emissions in Austria is the company voestalpine in Linz, which alone generates emissions of 8.4 million tonnes of CO2. The second on the list is also voestalpine, with its steelworks in Donawitz, that causes 3 million tonnes of emissions. At the same time, this also represents a massive opportunity to reduce emissions, with tangible effects for Austria’s overall emissions balance. As a company, voestalpine has risen to meet this challenge and taken some spectacular measures.

History

It is best to start off discussing this leading Austrian industrial enterprise with a brief outline of the company’s complex past. Ground-breaking for the weapons manufacturer called the Hermann-Göring-Werke occurred on 13 May 1938. After the end of the Second World War, the company was seized by the Allies and renamed Vereinigte österreichische Eisen- und Stahlwerke (VÖEST); it was subsequently turned over the Republic of Austria for management in trust. On 26 July 1946, the company became state-owned. As a symbol of reconstruction, the first blast furnaces were fired up as early as 1947, with three operating in 1951 and four from 1956. VÖEST thus formed the foundation of Austrian state-owned industry and advanced to become the Austrian state’s flagship company, at the latest with its development of the revolutionary Linz-Donawitz process (basic oxygen process).

In 1973, the struggling Styrian company Alpine Montan AG was reintegrated into VOEST, which it had been part of before 1946. The other Austrian steelmakers from that period, Böhler and Schoeller-Bleckmann, were also incorporated into the group. The newly formed company was called VOEST-Alpine AG, which also owned the internationally well-known weapons manufacturer Noricum.

In the years thereafter there was strong political influence over the state-owned company in the interests of maintaining jobs. This came to end in 1985, when the company, which had grown into a conglomerate and been running large deficits since 1981, suffered a record-setting loss of 25 billion Austrian schillings (equivalent to about EUR 1.8 billion), due to oil derivatives transactions. As a result, the company was completely restructured and divided into three groups in 1993: VOEST-Alpine Industrieanlagenbau (as part of the newly founded company VA Tech), Böhler-Uddeholm AG, and VOEST-ALPINE STAHL AG (now voestalpine AG).

In 1995, privatisation of the 100% state-owned company voestalpine began with its listing on the Vienna Stock Exchange; this process was finally completed in full in 2003. Shares in the steelmaker Böhler-Uddeholm were gradually acquired, until the company was fully integrated into voestalpine in 2008. This led to the creation of a steelmaking group which has earned an excellent reputation for quality and volume in the global steel industry.

Green steel, Made in Austria

As the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the European steel industry as a whole faces enormous challenges in terms of transforming its technology to make production more environmentally friendly. With its product “greentec steel”, voestalpine has developed an ambitious plan for clean steel production and views itself as a global pioneer in the field of environmentally-friendly steel production. The core of this ambitious plan is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

As a first step, starting from 2027, the existing blast furnace route is to be partially replaced with a hybrid electric steel route. In April 2023, a decision was made to spend EUR 1.5 billion on this undertaking. Plans also call for one blast furnace in Linz and one in Donawitz to be replaced after 2030. In parallel with this, there is intensive research on new processes and investment in pilot projects to find new methods in the production of steel.

H2FUTURE

One of the projects is the hydrogen pilot plant H2FUTURE at the company’s works in Linz. This plant is testing out the production of hydrogen in industrial quantities and the possibilities for its use in steel production and in other industrial sectors. H2FUTURE was successfully commissioned and the plant is now already producing green hydrogen.

Test facility Donawitz

In Styria, at the Donawitz plant, a test facility is currently being built to research the CO2-free production of crude steel in a production step using novel hydrogen-plasma technology. This involves making steel without the iron ore step, using an electric arc furnace and the reduction of iron ore with hydrogen plasma. This generates only water vapour as an end product and emissions of greenhouse gases are completely avoided. This project has a very long timeframe for implementation and the University of Mining, Leoben, is also involved.

HYFOR

Another research project under way in Donawitz is HYFOR, also in collaboration with the University of Mining, Leoben. It involves the construction of a pilot plant for the reduction of iron ore in a fluid state, using hydrogen. The resulting hot sponge iron would then be fed into an electric arc furnace, or used to produce hot briquetted iron (HBI). The research project is designed to establish the base data for later conversion to an industrial plant.

UNDERGROUND SUN STORAGE 2030

As part of the Underground Sun Storage 2030 project, voestalpine is researching the underground storage of green hydrogen, together with partners from industry and science. Electrolysis is used to convert solar energy into pure hydrogen, which is subsequently stored in former natural gas reservoirs. In this unique project, the only one of its kind in the world, voestalpine is investigating the various possible uses for the stored hydrogen.