European perspectives on the extractive metallurgy of iron

At the Seventh European Coke and Ironmaking Congress in Linz on September 12–14, 2016, attention focused on the prospects for the development of ferrous metallurgy. The combination of a blast furnace and an oxygen converter is expected to remain the primary system for smelting steel, until electrosmelting becomes dominant in the 2060s. The development of hydrogen metallurgy is predicted. Microbiological fermentation of metallurgical gases to produce ethanol and other chemicals will eventually be adopted on an industrial scale.