The societal and economic demand is growing for achieving environmentally-friendly industries by conserving natural resources and reducing their impact on the environment.

• In line with this trend, the steel industry is striving for innovation and sustainable solutions to improve the recovery rate and quality of by-products generated during the steel production process, and numerous technologies have been commercialized from the perspective of 3R (Reduce, Recover, Recycle).

• Various concepts such as Replace and Rot are also used in different industries.

From the Reduce perspective, the steel industry is actively developing energy conservation and Smart Factory technologies.

• As the steel industry is a sector with significant energy consumption during production processes, various energy-saving technologies are being developed, especially in energy-intensive processes like the blast furnace sector.

• Recently, Smart Factory technologies combined with Al technology have been widely applied in the steel industry, resulting in effects such as reduced defect rates, shortened decision-making times, reduced disuse stock, minimized equipment failure occurrences, reduced accident rates, and shortened response times in case of abnormalities.

From the Recover perspective, prominent technologies include those for recovering zinc and iron from dust, and slag and by-product gases are being reused.

• Notably, slag, a major by-product of steel production, is used as a raw material for cement and fertilizer, while steelmaking slag is used as aggregate.

From the Recycle perspective, the most active area of technology development is steel scrap.

• As the use of scrap is expected to increase in response to carbon neutrality issues, technology development is actively underway to control tramp elements (recyclable elements) overcoming quality constraints of manufactured products.

• Various technologies, including Al systems for scrap inspection, as well as drones, collaborative robots, and blockchain, are being developed to advance the scrap steel industry.

The 3R technologies in the steel industry play a crucial role in sustainability and environmental protection.

• In conjunction with the carbon neutrality issue, recent advancements in scrap-related technologies are actively progressing, and it is expected that the circular economy model of the steel industry will be further advanced with the development of 3R technologies.