ARCELORMITTAL ESPANA SA

Their core work

ArcelorMittal España is the Spanish arm of the world's largest steel and mining company, operating major steel production facilities in Asturias. Within H2020, they serve as an industrial end-user and validation partner, testing advanced materials (especially graphene-based composites) and energy recovery technologies in real steel manufacturing environments. Their participation brings heavy industry scale and demanding operational conditions that help research teams validate technologies under actual production stress. They bridge the gap between laboratory graphene research and large-scale industrial application in metals and energy-intensive manufacturing.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

ArcelorMittal España entered H2020 through industrial energy efficiency (I-ThERM, 2015), addressing waste heat recovery with heat pipes and power conversion — a natural fit for a steel plant generating enormous thermal waste. From 2016 onward, they pivoted heavily into the Graphene Flagship ecosystem, joining all three Core Projects and the 2D Experimental Pilot Line. Their trajectory shows a clear shift from consuming energy recovery solutions to co-developing advanced materials that could transform steel coatings, structural composites, and industrial sensors.

ArcelorMittal España is moving from graphene research participation toward pilot-line manufacturing, signaling readiness to integrate 2D materials into steel industry products and processes.

How they like to work

ArcelorMittal España operates exclusively as a participant, never leading projects — consistent with their role as an industrial end-user providing real-world validation environments rather than driving research agendas. Their 262 unique partners across 25 countries reflect participation in the massive Graphene Flagship consortia rather than curated bilateral partnerships. For potential collaborators, this means they are approachable as a testing and validation partner for materials and energy technologies that need proving at industrial steel production scale.

With 262 consortium partners across 25 countries, their network is vast but largely inherited from the Graphene Flagship mega-project rather than individually built. This gives them indirect connections to Europe's top graphene research groups, materials institutes, and electronics companies.

What sets them apart

ArcelorMittal España offers something few partners can: access to one of Europe's largest steel production environments for testing advanced materials and energy technologies at industrial scale. While hundreds of labs work on graphene composites, very few can validate performance under the extreme temperatures, mechanical loads, and chemical conditions of continuous steel manufacturing. For any consortium needing an industrial demonstration site in heavy industry, they are a compelling and credible partner.

Highlights from their portfolio

• I-ThERM
  Their largest funded project (€300K), addressing a direct operational need — recovering waste heat from steel production using multiple conversion technologies.
• 2D-EPL
  Represents their most forward-looking commitment: moving graphene from research into an experimental pilot line, bridging lab results to industrial manufacturing.
• GrapheneCore2
  Broadest scope of their Flagship participation, covering composites, energy, electronics, photonics, and sensors — revealing the range of graphene applications relevant to steel production.