A consortium of 48 European companies and organizations has entered into an agreement to launch a cooperative Research and Development initiative searching for new steel production processes that would drastically reduce CO 2 and other greenhouse gas emissions of the sector. The consortium is called ULCOS, an acronym for "Ultra Low CO 2 Steelmaking".

ULCOS will examine a set of new concepts for making steel on the process route based on iron ore that have the potential of reducing the specific CO 2 emissions of the steel industry by more than 30 percent. To reach this degree of reduction in line with the probable post-Kyoto requirements for the future, the steel industry needs to develop new process paradigms using breakthrough technologies. One technology is based on the recycling of blast furnace top gas after decarbonization. CO 2 capture and storage technologies can be added. Other breakthrough technologies are also being examined. They include electrolysis, use of hydrogen, use of carbon and natural gas with CO 2 capture and sequestration in reactors different from the blast furnace, or utilization of biomass.

The consortium is led by a core-group of steel producers comprising ThyssenKrupp Stahl, Arcelor, Corus, Riva, Voestalpine, Saarstahl and Dillinger H