Johannes Schenk started his professional career at Voestalpine Industrieanlagenbau (now Primetals Technologies Austria) in 1990. He was working as a process and research engineer for different ironmaking technologies such as MIDREX, COREX and FINMET. As general manager and vice president of R&D he was responsible for the development of the FINEX process between 1992 to 2007.

In 2008, he got the call as full professor for the chair of ferrous metallurgy at the Montanuniversität Leoben. His research focus at the university is on the primary technology for steel production, i.e. ironmaking and crude steel production. The current topics in the ongoing research projects are related to CO₂ lean steel production and circular economy. Since 2015 he is also the Chief Scientific Officer of the Austrian metallurgical competence center K1-MET GmbH.

Johannes Schenk has published more than 160 papers in Journals and Conference Proceedings and is inventor and co-inventor of more than 30 patent families.

Abstract

Hydrogen Meets Future Steelmaking: On the road towards a CO2 lean steelmaking in Europe

The EU commission has committed to fulfilling the targets of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction in 2050 by 80 % compared to the level of 1990. The fulfilment of the EU´s climate policies brings new challenges for the iron and steel industry. The European steel industry is forced to develop strategies for the transition of their technology to a carbon lean production and to keep the competitiveness in the world market. The steel companies in EU27 are taking the challenge to secure steel production in Europe. They have launched innovation projects for CO₂ mitigation, focusing on the technological pathways Carbon Direct Avoidance (CDA) and Smart Carbon Usage (SCU), which are, beside Circular economy, defined as essential pillars for CO₂ reduction in the European steel industry. The transformation of the steel industry must go hand in hand with a decarbonisation of the energy supply and other industries within EU27.