A new article in the EU’s Horizon magazine describes progress in the EU-funded R&D initiative TWINGHY, which is developing hydrogen-powered burners for steel reheating furnaces to help decarbonise the steel sector.

Project partner CELSA Group, headquartered in Barcelona, is one of Europe’s largest producers of circular steel, recycling nearly all its raw material from scrap metal in electric arc furnaces. This makes its operations significantly cleaner than traditional coal-based steelmaking.

Through the TWINGHY project, the project partners are tackling one of the last major sources of emissions in CELSA’s process: the natural gas used to reheat steel before rolling. These furnaces heat semi-finished steel before further shaping it in rolling mills. The TWINGHY researchers want to make the process less polluting by using hydrogen instead of gas.

In trials planned for early 2026, researchers will test hybrid burners capable of running on either hydrogen or natural gas, or a combination of both, depending on fuel availability. The burners were designed and built by French engineering firm FIVES. The project also includes a digital twin – a virtual replica of the furnace being developed by Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), one of Europe’s leading high-performance computing institutions. The digital twin will enable the CELSA 3 plant to simulate furnace operations, predict its behaviour, and improve energy efficiency.

If all goes well, the burners could reach the market before the end of the project in 2027 – rapid progress by steel industry standards. But success hinges on the availability of sufficient quantities of green hydrogen.

“The technology is ready,” said project manager Torruella Martínez. “The question is whether hydrogen supply will keep pace. Investment in clean steel depends on that.”

Read the full article here.