The project “Circularity as opportunity: Engineering hydrogen-resistant circular steels” (CIRHY) has officially been approved in the NWO Perspectief 2024–2025 round. The project seeks to develop safe, circular and hydrogen-resistant steels, strengthening the Netherlands’ position at the forefront of green steel innovation.
The project is led by Dr. Poulumi Dey (TU Delft), with Dr. Karo Sedighiani (Tata Steel) serving as industrial co-lead, ensuring that scientific advances are tightly connected to industrial needs from day one. The Materials Innovation Institute (M2i) coordinates the collaboration and supports the consortium with project management, stakeholder engagement and knowledge utilisation.
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Broad and complementary group of partners
The project is supported by a wide range of partners. They are:
- Academic partners: TU Delft, University of Groningen (RUG), Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), University of Twente (UT), KU Leuven (Belgium), Ghent University (Belgium) and the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials (MPI-SusMat, Germany).
- Industrial and end-user partners: Tata Steel Nederland, Ansys, APS, SKF, NLR, ProRail, Allseas, NRG, and Bouwen met Staal (BmS).
Each industrial partner contributes specific sector expertise from hydrogen pipelines to offshore structures, aerospace, nuclear safety, railway infrastructure and rotating components, ensuring that CIRHY’s modelling framework and material solutions are validated across real-world use cases.
Solving a critical challenge in the hydrogen economy
Hydrogen is central to Europe’s climate ambitions, but it also causes a problem: steel can become brittle and crack when exposed to hydrogen. This is particularly challenging for recycled steel, which has a variable structure and composition. At the same time, the steel sector faces an urgent push to become more circular and more sustainable.
CIRHY tackles these two challenges at once: How can we design recycled, impurity-rich steels that are both circular and resistant to hydrogen-induced damage? The CIRHY project is looking at how small amounts of certain impurities in recycled steel can actually help to make it more resistant to hydrogen damage.
Also read: First ships to be built with recycled SSAB Zero steel
Multi-scale modelling chain
The project builds on the foundations laid by the earlier NWO-funded DeHy project, also led by Dr. Poulumi Dey, which established the scientific basis for understanding and predicting hydrogen–microstructure interactions. CIRHY will develop a full physics-based multi-scale modelling chain from atomistic mechanisms to structural-scale fracture prediction supported by advanced experiments and digital integration.
A core outcome will be validated Digital Material Cards, enabling industry to design and simulate circular hydrogen-resistant steels with confidence.
Connected to other green steel initiatives
CIRHY connects naturally to M2i’s wider portfolio of green steel initiatives and represents another important step in accelerating sustainable steel development in the Netherlands.
A key added value of CIRHY is that it strengthens the link between the DEPMAT programme focused on re-introducing scrap as a base-material in steel production and the Groeien met Groen Staal (GGS) programme, which drives the adoption of low-carbon, circular steel in Dutch industry. By bringing these two major initiatives closer together, CIRHY will amplify their combined impact and support shared ambitions for durability, sustainability and safe hydrogen infrastructure.
Also read: Green steel programme receives final approval
Project goals
Over the coming years, CIRHY will:
- Develop alloy concepts that turn recycled-steel impurities into an advantage.
- Deliver a multi-scale predictive modelling framework.
- Produce digitally integrated tools interoperable with industrial platforms such as Ansys.
- Validate materials and models across six industrial demonstrators.
- Support capacity building through dedicated training, workshops and knowledge exchange.
Picture by M2i.
