Earlier this year we shared a story on the official green-lighting of the HYBRIT fossil-free steel initiative. Today marks the start of construction in Luleå, Sweden, on the first pilot plant for creating fossil-free steel.
SSAB, LKAB, and Vattenfall have, alongside the Swedish Energy Agency, invested SEK 1,4 billion in the pilot plant. This means that the HYBRIT initiative has now entered its second phase. The goal is a fossil-free, ore-based steel production, on an industrial scale.
The plant is expected to be ready by 2020 and its completion opens the possibility for full-scale testing and development of the technique to produce steel by using hydrogen instead of coal and coke. This could lead to a historical shift in production techniques, with water as a by-product instead of carbon dioxide emissions.
Mårten Görenrup, HYBRIT CEO
"By testing in pilot scale, we can leave the small-scale laboratory environment an instead mimic the coming industrial process, and prepare for efficient production. We are very happy to be able to enter the next phase and get one step closer to our target of fossil-free steel production, with all its environmental benefits," says Mårten Görnerup, CEO of HYBRIT.
HYBRIT has the potential to reduce Sweden’s total carbon dioxide emissions by ten percent, and Finland’s by seven percent. Moreover, HYBRIT has the global potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
HYBRIT is a joint venture company, owned by three companies, SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall. Its goal is to be first in the world to develop an industrial process for fossil-free, ore-based steel production. The project was initiated in spring 2016 and it aims to have an industrial process in place by 2035.
For more information on the initiative, click here.