Decarbonising steel: The four-horse race (energymonitor.ai)Of...

Decarbonising steel: The four-horse race (energymonitor.ai)


Of the four competing technologies to decarbonise steel, DRI with CCS and HDRI are closer to commercial scale than the electrolysis technologies. “The hope for 30 years was that CCS could simply be attached to blast furnaces, but that is just not panning out,” says Bataille. Instead, there are versions of HDRI at the finance and planning stage across Europe, for operation somewhere between 2024 and 2030.

The problem is that the electrolysis technologies require much more so-called “must-run” electricity for a tonne of steel, particularly MOE, so they are exposed to fluctuating power prices. This is where HDRI has the advantage. Sweden’s SSAB, for example, is building an underground cavern, where it will store hydrogen it has created using off-peak North Sea offshore wind, to be used by SSAB’s steel plant as and when needed."

MGT needs to be quick before these electrolysis tech gathers momentum! Happy new year all!