Under the theme “Paving the Future of EU Steel: Clean Technologies, Smart Steel Products, and Applications,” Europe’s latest advances in steel research and innovation were presented at the ESTEP Annual Event 2026.

K1-MET was represented with five contributions:

• Presentation by Irmtraud Marschall: “Hydraulic properties and alkali activation of artificial electric smelting furnace slag”
• Presentation by Klemens Winkler: “Towards networked digital twins for a green steel value chain: an integration concept from the DiGreeS project”
• Poster presentation by Hadi Barati: “Evaluation of slag foaming behaviour in an electric arc furnace using numerical modelling”
• Poster presentation by Wolfgang Reiter: “Safe H-DRI projects – intermediate findings: from hydrogen reduction to reoxidation and the importance of reliable material characterisation”
• Poster presentation by Nina Plankensteiner: “Low-temperature CO₂ electrolysis to mitigate hard-to-abate emissions in the steel industry in a closed carbon loop“