A green hydrogen-powered steel production mill is shaping up and is on track to begin production by 2026, after 740 megawatt (MW) electrolyzers were dispatched to the site at Boden, Northern Sweden. Stegra, the company behind the plant, is looking to manufacture green steel by replacing coal in the production process with renewable hydrogen.
Due to its high versatility, impeccable strength, and high affordability, steel is used in various applications from consumer goods to construction, transportation, and manufacturing. The modern world around us is built with steel. However, the ubiquitous usage of steel comes at a high environmental cost.
Estimates suggest that every ton of steel produced produces 1.9 tons of carbon emissions. The high steel demand is responsible for nearly nine percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in a warmer planet and more extreme weather events. As countries look to reduce their emissions to ‘net-zero’ over the next few decades, processes like steel production need a major rethink, and that’s exactly what Stegra is doing.
Making steel with green hydrogen
Founded in 2020, Sweden-based Stegra aims to decarbonize hard-to-abate industries. These areas have typically relied on fossil fuels but are also indispensable for the economy’s growth. Stegra’s bold move to decarbonize such industries begins with steel at the plant in Boden.
Steel production has relied on either coal or fossil gas for the direct reduction process, where iron ore is directly reduced in its solid state at temperatures below its melting point. This results in the formation of spongy iron, which is then used to make steel.
Stegra’s approach involves intervening at this crucial step with green hydrogen, which will significantly reduce the carbon emissions from the process, since blast furnaces will not be deployed.
The company hopes to put this plan into action by 2026, when its first green steel will roll out, and order electrolyzers of 740 MW from German industrial conglomerate Thyssenkrupp to achieve this.
Electrolyzers for green hydrogen
Stegra’s order for electrolyzers consists of 37 alkaline electrolysis modules, each with a 20 MW rating. Each electrolyzer skid is 131 feet (40 m) long and 16 feet (five meters) wide. The massive modules are assembled at Thyssenkrupp’s facility in Spain.
The units have been dispatched to the Boden facility, where they will be mounted onto a 70-hectare plot between the existing power station and the reduction tower at the plant.
Once the units arrive, a team of 3,000 staff, contractors, and consultants will work at the site to ensure that the hydrogen generators and water-gas separation units are correctly installed. The hydrogen generated will be fed into direct-reduction units at the plant, which has an investment of 7.4 billion dollars.
“This is a big milestone for us and marks an important step for what will be one of the largest electrolysis plants globally,” the company said on its social media handle. The arrival and installation of the electrolyzers put the company on track to begin production of green-hydrogen powered steel by 2026.
