The First Delivery of ‘Green Steel’ Suggest Its Future Is Not Far Off. ‘Green steel’ might sound like an oxymoron, but it’s a phrase you’re bound to be hearing a lot more of in the next few years.
On Wednesday, the world’s first carbon-free steel was delivered to the truck-maker AB Volvo in Sweden.
This is just a test run, and certainly, there are a few media stunts, but Volvo says it ordered the material to start production on the new fleet of Green Steel cars.
According to SSAB, The Ribbon Cut Event, a Swedish steelmaker responsible for green steel, is “an important step towards a completely fossil-free value chain, from mines to finished steel.”
Green Steel, The future of reality
According to its manufacturer, the world’s first customer delivery of “green steel” produced without using coal occurs in Sweden.
The Swedish venture Hybrit said it was delivering the steel to truck-maker Volvo AB as a trial run before full commercial production in 2026. Volvo has said it will start production in 2021 of prototype vehicles and components from green steel.
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Steel production using coal accounts for around 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Hybrit started test operations at its pilot plant for green steel in Lulea, northern Sweden, a year ago. It aims to replace coal, traditionally needed for ore-based steel making, with renewable electricity and hydrogen. Hydrogen is a key part of the EU’s plan to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
HYBRIT (Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology) is owned by the steelmaker SSAB, state-owned utility Vattenfall and miner LKAB.
SSAB accounts for 10% of Sweden’s and 7% of Finland’s carbon dioxide emissions. It said the trial delivery was an “important step towards a completely fossil-free value chain. The goal is to deliver fossil-free steel to the market and demonstrate the technology on an industrial scale as early as 2026.”
Another green steel venture, H2 Green Steel, plans to build a fossil fuel-free steel plant in the north of Sweden, including a sustainable hydrogen facility, with production starting in 2024.
“The world’s first fossil-free steel is not only a breakthrough for SSAB, but it also proves that it can make the transition and significantly reduce the steel industry’s global carbon dioxide emissions. ” Said In a recent announcement, Martin Lindqvist, President, and CEO of SSAB.
“I hope this will encourage others to accelerate the green transition. The industry, especially the steel industry, produces a lot of emissions, but it’s also an important part of the solution.”
Green Steel, What will be the future of it.
Like cement, steel is one of those materials you really don’t realize is around you until you start looking for it. Then you can see that it’s almost everywhere: your dinner table in the shape of cutlery, a wind turbine on a hill, a bridge you cross every day, a building you enter, in a car you drive, you Food cans that you buy.
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It also requires a lot of energy to make. On average, every ton of steel demands About 2 tons of carbon dioxide, Globally. So every year, steel production 7% or more Of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions is Slightly higher than all car emissions in the world.
By 2050, the steel industry alone is on track. Eat 50% of the carbon balance I had to keep warming up to 1.5 ° C. This means it’s a great place to start by reducing emissions.
In the meantime, Steel is one of the highest recycling rates in the world. Ultimately, new steel will need to be forged to meet the demand. But, if we can do it more environmentally friendly, we can make great strides towards our climate goals.
Today, most steel is manufactured in blast furnaces, often using coal-dependent processes that lead to CO.2 Emissions. Hydrogen can be introduced into this process to reduce these emissions.
Already, hydrogen energy is used to fuel electricity and automobiles in some parts of the world, but most of the hydrogen is used in petroleum refining and chemical products. This is because it comes from fossil fuels. Hydrogen in the United States Mainly comes from natural gas.
All of these methods produce emissions, but there are more environmentally friendly alternatives. That can also make hydrogen from clean energy. For example, when electricity from wind turbines and solar panels breaks down hydrogen from water, that power can reduce iron ore to metallic iron without emitting any carbon.
Despite growing much cheaper over the years, this process of producing “green hydrogen” is not yet more expensive than using fossil fuels or natural gas.
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The Bottom Line
That cost is a barrier for many countries. In Australia, for example, the government recently rejected An application for building the world’s largest green hydrogen and ammonium plants.
However, in 2019, the EU has set a goal of being climate-neutral by 2050. To get there 23 hydrogen steel projects, Production is in progress or is about to begin in multiple countries.
Over the next few years, these ventures have the potential to sell hundreds of thousands of tonnes of green steel manufactured without fossil fuels.
HYBRIT’s Green Steel was only shipped first but may not be the first steel on the market. H2 Green Steel, another Sweden-based venture, Plans to build a renewable hydrogen plant. So we will make green steel by 2024.
In the United States, President Biden Promised to reduce the cost of green hydrogen Can compete with natural gas.
But if Europe can buy green steel in the next five years, it won’t be long before other countries demand the same.
“In the future, by industrializing this technology and shifting to the production of sponge iron on an industrial scale, the steel industry will be able to make the transition.” To tell Jan Moström, President and CEO of LKAB.
“This is the biggest thing we can do together for the climate.”
The first delivery of “Green Steel” suggests that the future is not far away.
