Hydrogen-based direct reduction is a promising technology for CO2 lean steelmaking. The electric arc furnace is the most relevant aggregate for processing direct reduced iron (DRI). As DRI is usually added into the arc, the behavior in this area is of great interest. A laboratory-scale hydrogen plasma smelting reduction (HPSR) reactor was used to analyze that under inert conditions.

There is a shortage of scrap in steelmaking around the world. Due to the small domestic self-sufficiency of scrap in China and the unstable quality of scrap available, it is necessary to find alternatives to scrap.

Gas-based direct reduction iron (DRI), which has been commercialized, is made from natural gas or coal. In recent years, with the global attention to carbon dioxide emissions, active research has been carried out on the low carbonization of DRI processes, mainly carbon dioxide removal in existing commercial DRI processes or the use of renewable energy to produce reducing gas.