GreenIron hosts mid-term meeting of the ZHyRON project in Sandviken

September 25, 2025

Last week, GreenIron had the pleasure of hosting the mid-term review meeting of the ZHyRON project – a two-day event filled with presentations, discussions, and a site visit to our facility in Sandviken.

About the ZHyRON project

Launched in January 2024 and running until December 2026, ZHyRON is funded by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA). The project brings together nine partners* from six EU countries developing a new recycling route for steelmaking by-products such as dusts, sludges, pellet fines, and mill scales. Using a combined pyrometallurgical–hydrometallurgical process with green hydrogen, the project aims to separate iron into Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) for reuse in electric arc furnaces and recover zinc as zinc oxide concentrate for the zinc industry or other applications – a solution that strengthens the circular economy.

Highlights from the meeting

GreenIron’s project manager Maciej Kaplan, together with CTO Linda Ahl, welcomed participants from across Europe along with the EU project advisor.

Over the two intensive days:

  • Six work packages presented – showcase progress and next steps.
  • The EU project advisor provided feedback and guidance.
  • Participants visited GreenIron’s facility in Sandviken now in the hot commissioning.

Maciej reflects on the visit:

“The exchange between different areas of expertise, knowledge and openness has been really invaluable. Working together brings enormous breadth and deepens our own capabilities”

 

Why this matters

The EU has set the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, requiring the steel industry to reduce CO₂ emissions by 35%. Current recycling of steelmaking by-products, although widespread, still relies heavily on fossil fuels.

Around 50 millon tons of steelmaking by-products are recycled. Current methods emit approximately 49 millon tons annually of CO₂  and 250,000 tons of zinc-rich by-products cannot be recycled and end up in landfills. ZHyRON directly addresses these challenges by developing  a hydrogen-based recycling route capable of recovering valuable iron and zinc while significantly lowering environemental impact.

 

Solutions in development

The project’s goal is to create a hydrogen-based method for recycling iron-rich and zinc-containing steelmaking by-products, in order to:

  • Produce Direct Reduced Iron for reuse in Electric Arc Furnaces.
  • Produce zinc-rich materials for valorization, such as in the zinc smelting industry.
  • Efficiently treat effluent for proper disposal or reuse.
  • Address all stages of the process, from waste conditioning to zinc recovery.
  • Optimize the hydrogen-based reduction process using multi-physics models.
  • Assess environmental performance through a sustainable monitoring framework.
  • Facilitate upscaling to commercial levels through conceptual integration.

 

Looking ahead

The ZHyRON project will continue until the end of 2026. The main goals include producing a zinc-free DRI product and establishing clear methods for treating water streams in the process.

 

Maciej concludes:

“Our focus now is to push the work further and unlock the next steps of innovation. By succeeding, we will set the foundation for a truly circular and sustainable way of handling steel industry by-products.”

The partners:

https://www.fcirce.es/
Investigación y Desarrollo | ArcelorMittal España
ArcelorMittal en France
CRM Group – Pioneering Metallurgy Innovation Since 1948
BFI EN
A major player in the recycling industry | JGI-HYDROMETAL
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