Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH, the largest steel subsidiary in the Salzgitter Group, commissioned Tenova to build a demonstration plant for the production of direct reduced iron (DRI) using up to 100% hydrogen as a reducing agent. The plant is based on ENERGIRON technology and will be installed at the Salzgitter steel mill in Salzgitter, Germany. The plant will have a nominal production capacity of 100 kg/h and will be operated with hydrogen and natural gas. The DRI produced will be used in the blast-furnace process to save injected coal and in the electric-arc furnace (EAF) of the Peine plant.

The ENERGIRON process was jointly developed by Tenova and Danieli. It is designed for extremely low CO₂ emissions while processing iron-ore pellets. This enables Salzgitter to achieve its long-term CO₂ reduction targets.

The ENERGIRON process was also recently selected by HBIS Group for the first gas-based DRI plant in China and by OMK in Russia for the production of high-quality steel grades.