ArcelorMittal announces that the use of molecular hydrogen H2 for steel production can significantly reduce emissions of harmful gases. Launches a pilot project in Germany. Start of production in a few years.
The pilot plant is planned to be built in Hamburg. Initially, production of 100,000 will reach tons of steel per year. Currently, the cost of production using hydrogen is about a third higher than in the blast furnace process.
The production of steel from ore, that is, iron oxide, is mainly a process for the reduction of this oxide. Oxygen can be "drawn out" from it with the help of coal, and then, in addition to iron, carbon dioxide or hydrogen is formed, which leads to the formation of water in the form of steam. Until now, coke won in the first place - the cost of production using hydrogen is about a third higher. This difference is largely due to the prices required for the power generation process.
The use of coke with high prices for CO2 emissions and the increasing availability of the process, because it is not burdened with these costs of renewable energy, causes a change in the cost difference, and more and more companies are leaning towards production using hydrogen.
ArcelorMittal intends to launch a pilot project this year at its plant in Hamburg - it will begin construction of a plant that will launch such production within a few years. Initially, production of 100,000 is planned. tons of steel per year.
The concern chose Hamburg because of the high technical complexity of the plant and the direct reduction process, in which, instead of coke, natural gas is used as a carbon source for reducing oxides from ore and using ore in the form of pellets. “The use of hydrogen as a reducing gas will be tested in a new shaft furnace,” said Frank Schulz, CEO of ArcelorMittal, Germany.
