MPI begins £2.9 million upgrade to UK's only pilot-scale electric arc furnace to accelerate low-emission steelmaking

The Materials Processing Institute (MPI) in Middlesbrough has begun work on a £2.9 million upgrade to its seven‑tonne electric arc furnace (EAF), the UK’s only pilot‑scale research EAF, a move the institute says will accelerate the industrialisation of low‑emission steelmaking. According to the original report, installation work is scheduled to begin in January and dismantling of the existing plant , including removal of refractory materials and the extraction hood , is already underway at MPI’s Teesside site.

Chris Oswin, CEO of the Materials Processing Institute, said in the original report: “This upgrade marks a major milestone for MPI and for the UK’s journey toward commercial-scale low-emission steelmaking. It significantly enhances our capacity to develop and demonstrate the technologies needed for future EAF-based production, providing industry with a unique environment to test and prove innovation and bring higher recycled content, high-performance steel grades and technologies to market quicker. As installation begins, we are moving into a crucial phase of work that will deliver long-lasting benefits for industrial decarbonisation, competitiveness, and the resilience of the UK steel supply chain.”

Major components for the upgraded furnace have been delivered to the site, the report said, including a new furnace body and platform, electrode masts and arms, control panels, and upgraded charging and hopper systems. The outgoing furnace will be removed in January to make way for the new installation, which will be followed by commissioning trials.

The upgraded EAF will incorporate a suite of technologies designed to improve safety, energy efficiency and process control under industrial conditions. According to the original report, these include jet box powder injection for improved energy efficiency, a HBI/DRI/H2DRI feeder to enable continuous charging, automated temperature monitoring and enhanced slag‑removal instrumentation, together with integrated digital tools for real‑time monitoring and predictive analysis. MPI expects the enhanced facility to support development of green steel grades and value‑added slag products and to broaden its testbed role for sectors such as nuclear, defence, offshore, packaging and advanced engineering.

The project is backed by public research funding. MPI leads the EconoMISER programme, part of the Foundation Industry Sustainability Consortium (FISC), and the initiative has received funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via Innovate UK. Industry data released by consortium partners shows the wider EconoMISER programme is a £19.5 million UKRI‑funded effort to upgrade scale‑up centres across the foundation industries, with the explicit aim of providing specialist facilities to demonstrate low‑carbon technologies at scale. FISC partners include Glass Futures, the Centre for Process Innovation, the Henry Royce Institute and Lucideon, reflecting a coordinated attempt to bridge laboratory research and commercial deployment in metals, glass, ceramics, chemicals, paper and cement supply chains.

For practitioners in industrial decarbonisation, the upgrade represents a practical expansion of UK test infrastructure at a scale larger than typical laboratory rigs but well below full commercial converters. The addition of continuous charging capability for HBI/DRI/H2DRI material and advanced injection and monitoring systems aligns with industry priorities to raise recycled content, reduce reliance on blast‑furnace routes and integrate emerging low‑carbon reductants such as hydrogen. The digital analytics and predictive monitoring planned for the furnace also respond to growing demand from manufacturers for traceable process data to de‑risk scale‑ups and reduce time‑to‑market for new steel grades and process variants.

While MPI frames the work as strengthening UK competitiveness and supply‑chain resilience, the project sits within broader sectoral challenges: scaling EAF routes for a wide range of steel chemistries, securing low‑carbon feedstocks (including HBI/DRI produced with low‑emission hydrogen), and ensuring that pilot outcomes translate into cost‑competitive, operable solutions at commercial mills. The EconoMISER funding aims to tackle those gaps by providing repeatable, industrially representative demonstration facilities across the foundation industries, enabling industry and academia to validate technologies under realistic conditions before full‑scale investment.

MPI expects the upgraded facility to play a central role in trialling and de‑risking technologies that might underpin a shift to EAF‑based production in the UK and internationally, and to supply data and process understanding to manufacturers considering decarbonisation routes. The institute said the work will “deliver long‑lasting benefits for industrial decarbonisation, competitiveness, and the resilience of the UK steel supply chain,” reflecting a policy and commercial imperative to couple R&D with accessible scale‑up infrastructure.