Tata Steel Nederland advances recycled steel innovation in European project to boost sustainability

Tata Steel Nederland is stepping up work on recycled steel for cars and household appliances through a European research project that it says could help make high-grade steel from scrap without sacrificing performance.

The Dutch steelmaker is one of 13 partners in CiSMA, short for Circular Steel for Mass Market Applications, a €4.5 million Horizon Europe-backed initiative coordinated by Spain’s Eurecat. The project is designed to test whether steel used in demanding applica...

tions such as car body panels and washing machines can be made entirely from recycled scrap using electric arc furnace technology.

According to Tata Steel Nederland, the research is aimed at cutting carbon emissions sharply while preserving the strength and formability needed by manufacturers. The company says the work could eventually support steel production with 100% scrap input, although it acknowledges that such a model is not yet practical at commercial scale because of scrap availability and quality constraints.

The project also reflects a broader push across the European steel industry to use more recycled material and move away from conventional blast furnace production. Tata Steel Nederland has set its own target of lifting recycled content in its steel from 17% to 30% by 2030, underlining how central circularity has become to its long-term strategy.

In the CiSMA programme, researchers are using machine learning and digital modelling to deal with contaminated scrap and improve sorting, with the added aim of recovering valuable materials such as copper that are often lost in recycling. The company says the findings should be useful even before fully recycled steel becomes widespread, helping to improve products that already contain around 30% to 40% scrap.

Volvo Cars and Electrolux Professional are among the industrial partners involved in testing whether the material can meet commercial demands. Volvo is examining how higher recycled content affects the forming of car parts, while Electrolux Professional is looking at the potential to reduce Scope 3 emissions in equipment such as laundry and kitchen products.

Tata Steel Nederland says the effort forms part of its wider transition toward greener steelmaking, with the company presenting scrap-based production as a route to lower emissions and a more circular materials economy.

Source: Noah Wire Services