The Hisarna process was developed in stages at Corus Ijmuiden / Tata Steel Ijmuiden, starting in year 1986. The final stages were made possible through the Ultra-Low Carbon Dioxide Steelmaking  consortium and cooperation between former Corus (now Tata Steel) and the Rio Tinto Group (Rio Tinto is an Australian-British multinational and one of the world's largest metals and mining corporations. The HIsarna process is a Iron making process, which is basically a DRI (Direct Reduced Iron) process. Here iron ore is processed almost directly into liquid iron or hot metal. The process combined of two units:

 i) Cyclone Converter Furnace (CCF): It is used for ore melting and pre-reduction.

ii) Smelting Reduction Vessel (SRV): It is the final reduction stage to liquid iron.

In HIsarna Process, it does not require the production of Iron Ore Agglomerates such as pellets and sinter, nor the production of coke, which are necessary for the blast furnace operations. Without these steps, the HIsarna process is more energy-efficient and has a lower carbon footprint than traditional iron making processes.

The first attempt for applying cyclone oven technology in the reduction of iron ore took place at Hoogovens in the year 1960. Cyclone technology had been used successfully in different industries, in various chemical processes and designers at Hoogovens thought it might be a strategy for improvement for their process. However, at the time they couldn't get it to work properly and the experiment was abandoned. The first serious revival came in the year 1986, when Hoogovens sought a method of producing steel without having to produce iron ore agglomerates. At that time the desire was mostly a cost-cutting measure in order to make the process cheaper in trying economically. The trying times did not last however and the project was put on the back burner until the early 1990s. In the year 2004 the European Union brought pressure on the steel industry to reduce its carbon footprint; the ULCOS (Ultra-Low Carbon Dioxide Steelmaking) consortium was founded as a result and in the period 2005-2007 the cyclone technology was selected as one of the high-potential technologies among four. A theoretical answer was found to the earlier problems of the post-cyclone part of the cyclone furnace in the form of a Smelting Reduction Vessel and the Rio Tinto Group had industrial-scale experience with the required process, called HIsmelt. Lastly, an agreement formed between this industrial group and ULCOS added the HIsmelt technology to the cyclone furnace and thus the process of HIsarna came into play.

The HIsarna pilot plant was constructed at Tata Steel Ijmuiden in 2010. The pilot plant has a capacity of producing 65,000 tons of pig iron per year. First successful tap of liquid iron was done in 20th May 2011. 75 million Euros have been invested in developing the HIsarna pilot plant. The partner companies have invested 60% of this fund, while 40% consist of support from the European Union, the Dutch Economics Ministry and the European Research Fund for Coal and Steel.

The advantage of the HIsarna process is that it removes the step of creating iron ore agglomerates and coke to create a porous burden for the blast furnace. By comparison, in HIsarna, the powder form of the coal and ore are an advantage because the increased surface area improves the speed and quality of the reduction reaction in the cyclone. The main advantages of the process are derived from those mentioned above, however: the fact that the separate steps of creating ore agglomerates and cokes disappear from the process makes the process more energy efficient and reduces its carbon footprint. This makes the process attractive to steelmakers, who are being pressured to make their processes more environmentally friendly.