<p>Steel is the material of choice for economic growth and development worldwide. While it is the foundation of sustainable economic growth, the steel industry is one of the hard-to-abate sectors from a climate change perspective. Overall, 70% of global steel production occurs through the traditional blast furnace route using coal as a reductant. Steel producers worldwide are confronted with predicaments pertaining to finding ways for reducing the emissions generated by steel production. India’s growth trajectory in the coming decades poses key challenges. The present study discusses the importance of value-added applications in the existing blast furnace–basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) facilities such as (i) maximizing operational efficiency, (ii) adoption of best available technology, (iii) utilization of byproduct gasses in production, and (iv) the use of new technologies such as direct reduced iron (DRI) with green H₂ and carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technologies, for achieving emission reduction in the short-to-medium term and progress toward net zero emissions by the mid-century. Specific case studies have been performed using available data to understand the handling of byproduct gas or the source of hydrogen to be used to maximize their impact. It has been found that byproduct gas from blast furnaces or coke oven units can be best utilized in DRI processes rather than in power generation. In a similar manner, various use cases of green hydrogen have also been studied. It has been found that the best use of green H₂, in terms of CO₂ reduction and cost optimization would be realized in DRI process. Use of H₂ in blast furnace injection or in CCU and carbon capture and storage/sequestration (CCUS) would require higher amounts of H₂ per unit reduction of CO₂, and the overall reduction of CO₂ would also be limited.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>