Alternative reducing agents (ARAs) for the blast furnace (BF) process, such as pulverized coal (PC), are state-of-the-art being injected into the BF tuyere zone to partially replace metallurgical coke. PC grades show different conversion behavior depending on their chemical composition. For a deeper understanding of the chemo-kinetics during coal conversion and for a detailed analysis of other solid fuels, such as secondary carbon carriers (e.g., torrefied biomass) a highly sophisticated test reactor (called ARA reactor) will be operated.

The transformation of steel production from the BF to the direct reduction (DR) route requires an improved and fast analytics of the produce Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI) coming from the DR shaft. The knowledge e.g., about the iron valence in the HBI allows an indication of the DR process efficiency and stability.

At the end of the iron and steelmaking process chain, on-line, or at least at-line (by-pass) analysis applications for dusts, slags, and scrap must operate in a fast way to execute processes changes more efficiently according to the residue composition. Exemplarily, the slag analysis from the ladle furnace (LF), is used to define a change of additives for the LF treatment. Analysis of scrap as an important secondary raw material possibly directly at the scrap yard (scrap supplier site or in the steel plant) represents an effective measure to obtain information about the scrap quality before planning the further scrap logistics (sorting and charging).