Innovative and sustainable technologies for the industry of the future

Innovative solutions for the key challenges of the future

We have the experience and the technical know-how to shape the future. Our innovations focus on technologies for coping with climate change and the energy transition, for digitizing the industry and for the mobility of the future.

Research and development

We work continuously to ensure that thyssenkrupp offers its customers products and services of the highest technological quality, because we have an expertise in innovations. That's why we also pay particular attention to our research & development:

Our global research and development network comprises 75 locations with a total of around 4,000 employees. In addition, we cooperate with external partners such as universities and research institutes as well as other industrial companies.

In the last fiscal year we filed around 1,200 new patent and utility model applications - so the patent portfolio of our Group currently comprises around 14,630 patents and utility models, and in the trademark area around 9,060 property rights.

The thyssenkrupp Group's expenditure on research and development totaled €698 million in the reporting year 2022/23, an increase of 12% compared with the previous year.

Climate protection and energy transformation

Steel production at thyssenkrupp is to be CO₂-free by 2045. Achieving climate-neutral steel production will require fundamental technological changes. thyssenkrupp Steel is pursuing an open-technology approach and is focusing on two paths: The decisive step is the avoidance of CO₂ through the use of hydrogen ("Carbon Direct Avoidance", CDA). This is supplemented by the use of CO₂ ("Carbon Capture and Usage", CCU).

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The CDA path, the project is called tkH2Steel, envisages using green hydrogen instead of coal for steel production. In this process, the raw material iron ore is to be processed in so-called direct reduction plants rather than in blast furnaces as in the past. The resulting solid iron sponge is then melted into liquid steel in so-called melters. Instead of CO₂, this production route produces only water vapor.

The CCU project, called Carbon2Chem, uses CO₂, which can also be produced in other industrial plants during steel production, as a raw material for chemical products such as fertilizers or fuel. Currently, fossil fuels such as crude oil or natural gas are primarily used for their production. In the CCU pathway, the CO₂ contained in industrial emissions becomes usable because it is broken down into its constituent oxygen and carbon using green hydrogen. Carbon is a foundation of all life on earth and an indispensable basic material for organic chemistry.

CO₂ reduced Steel news

Green steel: Review of phase 1 of the injection trials

Hydrogen instead of carbon. Just over a year has passed since the world premiere of the use of hydrogen in ongoing blast furnace operations. What has happened in this first phase of the trials? We provide an overview.

Renewable energies as an enabler

We are already working on promising technologies to make steel production sustainable.

How we recycle our blast furnace gases

With our innovative technology Carbon2Chem, we convert climate-damaging CO2 into valuable resources. This way we are gradually making our steel production climate-neutral.

Climate-neutral steel production in the Ruhr region

Climate neutral by 2045 - Steel production of the future

Direct Reduction – tkH2Steel

The green transformation of the steel industry

Our colleagues at thyssenkrupp Steel are working continuously to make steel production climate-neutral by 2045. An ambitious goal because the transformation is a major challenge.

With its water electrolysis technology for the production of green hydrogen, thyssenkrupp offers an innovative industrial-scale solution for green value chains and an industry powered by clean energy - an important step towards climate neutrality.

Hydrogen is produced by splitting water into its components oxygen and hydrogen using electricity. Until now, the electricity for this has come mainly from fossil raw materials. The thyssenkrupp plants use electricity from renewable sources. They are specially designed for the conditions of renewables and can cope, for example, with the changing energy supply, which depends on the sun and wind.

The innovative plants achieve system efficiencies of up to 80 percent. This means that 80 percent of the energy supplied during electrolysis is converted into hydrogen. The plants are thus designed for large-scale and particularly efficient production of hydrogen. Added to this is their modular design, which makes them easier to expand as required than traditional plants.

Green hydrogen news

Hydrogen - colorless, but colorful.

Gray, blue or green hydrogen? We explain what's behind the colorful terms - and which color mix we're using at thyssenkrupp to take off towards green transformation.

Interview with hydrogen expert Dr Christoph Noeres

In a personal interview Dr Christoph Noeres, Head of Green Hydrogen, answers all questions around the subject of the production and use of hydrogen at thyssenkrupp.

The Ruhr region – A new Hydrogen Valley

The Ruhr region has the best prerequisites for becoming the new Hydrogen Valley. With its density of production sites and advantageous infrastructure, it can become the main hub of Germany's hydrogen economy.

A perfect match: hydropower plants & water electrolysis

To turn a version of a modern water electrolysis plant for the production of hydrogen on an industrial scale into reality, thyssenkrupp is working with the Canadian company Hydro-Québec. Together they want to produce the energy carrier of tomorrow in a sustainable way.

Is hydrogen the future? Interview with Klaus Keysberg

The steel production is undergoing big changes which will be worth it on numerous levels.

The path of green hydrogen

The light H2 molecule could become the key to a successful energy transition. If it is "green".

Green hydrogen for green steel: Paving the way to Hydrogen Valley

thyssenkrupp aims to be climate neutral by 2050. To achieve this we are gradually converting our steel production to direct reduction with climate-neutral hydrogen. For the transformation to succeed, large quantities of the light H2 molecule are needed. Together with the energy company STEAG we are taking the first step toward a local hydrogen economy in the Ruhr region.

Large quantities of carbon dioxide (CO₂) are released during cement production. Our experts at the thyssenkrupp Cement Technology Research Center have set themselves the goal of significantly reducing emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO₂. The basic principle of oxyfuel technology is to capture CO₂ from the exhaust gases of cement production plants and prevent it from being released into the atmosphere.

To do this, pure oxygen is used in the combustion process during cement production instead of ambient air, as was previously the case. The emission is largely pure CO₂, which can be easily captured and therefore does not enter the atmosphere. The CO₂ can then be stored or used for chemical processes such as methanol production.

Polysius^® news

Green cement industry with solutions from thyssenkrupp

More sustainability for the cement industry

Climate polluter cement? How we make cement plants ready for the Green Deal - with the polysius® product family from thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions.

Alternative fuels: More sustainable traffic without crude oil

Fuels from biomass or based on hydrogen offer solutions to the mobility dilemma.

Nitrous oxide, or more commonly known as laughing gas (N₂O), is about 265 times more harmful than CO₂ due to its longevity in the earth's atmosphere and its property of absorbing infrared radiation. Among other things, it is produced during the production of nitric acid. Nitric acid is used, for example, in the production of ammonium nitrate for fertilizers or in the production of plastics and dyes.

The EnviNOx® technology uses highly active zeolite catalysts that have a long service life and contain no toxic components. The process is a so-called end-of-pipe technology that can be easily integrated into existing plants. EnviNOx® removes about 99 percent of the N₂O from plant emissions.

EnviNOx^® news

6 breakthrough technologies for our climate

Our Mission: to become climate-neutral. How? With a change of mindset and the right technologies.

EnviNOx®: when agriculture becomes even greener

We at thyssenkrupp want to dissolve greenhouse gasses into air with our EnviNOx® process

Digital transformation of industry

In materials trading, the MES platform toii® developed by thyssenkrupp, among other things, ensures optimization in production. MES stands for Manufacturing Execution System. toii® is an application of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). With this solution, machines and tools of different generations and manufacturers can be digitized and networked with each other.

The application is characterized by the fact that it can also extract data from machines that are not IIoT-ready. toii® takes over the scheduled production orders and is designed to execute them in a highly transparent, efficient and timely manner. The system optimizes the interaction between production and intralogistics management and integrates employees via the "Paperless" app. From their tablet or smartphone, they can view and manage orders at any time and pick the end products.

toii^® news

IIoT cuts costs and downtime

thyssenkrupp Materials Schweiz AG reduces costs and downtime with modern IIoT technology.

IIoT creates transparency in materials trading

For thyssenkrupp Materials Services, digitization is the biggest lever for making their business more efficient. Its in-house developed IIoT technology toii®, for example, helps the largest materials trader in the western world achieve greater transparency with real-time data.

IIoT makes processes more efficient

Setting up supply chains efficiently and improving service: thyssenkrupp Materials Services uses modern technologies - from IIoT to AI - to achieve this.

Digitalization in the manufacturing SME sector

To keep the hurdle of digitization as low as possible for manufacturing SMEs, digital solutions must be flexible and easy to implement in existing, individual machinery.

Tomorrow's supply chains will be digital – or even better: intelligent. This makes them crisis-proof and helps to avoid supply bottlenecks, interruptions and even complete breakdowns in the supply chain. This is precisely where pacemaker.ai comes in, acting as a pacemaker for supply chains that have fallen out of sync. The AI-based software collects production data in real time and analyzes market data and demand forecasts. It recognizes deviations from patterns and predicts actual customer demand. This enables suppliers to quickly make adjustments in the event of deviations. In this way, pacemaker.ai avoids misdeliveries, reduces inventory and storage costs, and the number of shipments.

Another intelligent solution is Forward Sensing, which relies on data collaboration. The digital platform enables data exchange between all participants in a supply chain – from OEM to Tier-n – in real time. The exchange is based on transaction data such as orders and order confirmations. The platform draws logical conclusions about material availability or delivery delays, suggests alternatives and simulates various scenarios with their consequences. This ensures better forecasts and more efficient and resource-saving processes in supply chain management.

In our automotive component production, for example, camshafts and the equipment used to manufacture them form a cyber-physical system. Components and production systems communicate with each other: Each camshaft is uniquely identified and passes through production with its first and last name, so to speak. And it also carries a large amount of data with it: For example, the customer for whom it is being manufactured, its current processing status, and the condition in which it left the last process step. Product and production communicate with the network via interfaces.

In this way, the physical world of things merges with the data networks in cyberspace to form a "cyber-physical system”. The goal is the "intelligent factory" that operates in a self-controlling, adaptive and flexible manner.

Future Mobility

At the BILSTEIN Competence Center in Meuspath, just a few vehicle lengths from the famous Nuerburgring race track, our shock absorber specialists at thyssenkrupp BILSTEIN have set up a unique test environment. The centerpiece is the BILSTEIN 7-Post Rig. This allows customers from various automotive sectors to test their vehicles on a range of different track profiles in a single location. The new 7-Post Rig, a high-performance vertical test rig with seven hydraulic rams, can be used to simulate the driving behavior of a wide range of vehicles.

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One focus of our development work is on the intelligent networking of all chassis components with a higher-level interface for controlling the entire vehicle dynamics. To this end, software engineers at thyssenkrupp are developing an integrated control module (Vehicle Motion Control) which combines all the information from the individual control units (actuators) in the FMRP vehicle. It processes the impulses from the steering, brakes, shock absorbers and powertrain to create a coordinated driving strategy. For all stages of autonomous driving, such an integrating interface for controlling driving dynamics is indispensable. It not only performs essential safety-related tasks, but can also be tailored to the individual needs and wishes of the user. Even in today's vehicles, this control unit can already be used and significantly improve the performance of existing assistance systems.

Vehicle Motion Control news

#DigiJobs: András Csaba engineers the future of autonomous driving

András Csaba is Functional Project Leader in Research and Advanced Development at the Steering business unit of thyssenkrupp in Hungary. He is responsible for advancing Vehicle Motion Control Systems – digitizing cars and making automated driving a reality.

The automotive industry is on the move. New technologies and business models are emerging at ever shorter intervals. For suppliers, this means that they must be able to develop a wide range of technical solutions and provide them at short notice. You need fast, agile methods to develop new solutions. The Modular Research Platform MRP is a fast, agile method for developing new solutions, especially in the areas of chassis and steering. The test and development vehicle, which is made up of numerous individual components, makes it possible to test and compare innovative components, systems and functions under real conditions at a very early stage of development. A complex sensor system and a high-performance on-board computer supply and process the relevant data. This means that the time and costs previously required to test an innovative component in a specially developed prototype of a new vehicle are significantly reduced.

MRP news

Modular Research Platform: From good to even better

thyssenkrupp's valuable tool Modular Research Platform (MRP) experiences a directed progression.

Future-oriented development for the automotive industry with the Modular Research Platform

Traditional vehicle development methods are often too time-consuming. Our MRP provides a solution.

The electric motor is the heart of the electric vehicle and the non-oriented electrical steel strip used determines its performance and efficiency. The non-oriented powercore^® Traction grades from thyssenkrupp Steel are specially optimized for the high demands of sustainable electric mobility.

Electrical steel is a soft magnetic material. In such materials, an externally acting magnetic field is amplified. This property is crucial for the torque of an electric motor. Another criterion that is decisive for the performance of electric drives is that as little energy as possible is lost as heat.

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Innovative and sustainable technologies for the industry of the future

Innovative solutions for the key challenges of the future

CO₂ reduced Steel

"Carbon Direct Avoidance", CDA

"Carbon Capture and Usage", CCU