Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Gerard Flood – SSAB, a Swedish Steel Foundry, claims they have delivered their first batch of steel produced from iron ore using green hydrogen instead of metallurgic coal to a paying customer.
The world’s first fossil-free steel ready for delivery
AUGUST 18, 2021 15:00 CEST
SSAB has now produced the world’s first fossil-free steel and delivered it to a customer. The trial delivery is an important step on the way to a completely fossil-free value chain for iron- and steelmaking and a milestone in the HYBRIT partnership between SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall.
In July, SSAB Oxelösund rolled the first steel produced using HYBRIT technology, i.e., reduced by 100% fossil-free hydrogen instead of coal and coke, with good results. The steel is now being delivered to the first customer, the Volvo Group.
“The first fossil-free steel in the world is not only a breakthrough for SSAB, it represents proof that it’s possible to make the transition and significantly reduce the global carbon footprint of the steel industry. We hope that this will inspire others to also want to speed up the green transition,” says Martin Lindqvist, President and CEO of SSAB.
“Industry and especially the steel industry create large emissions but are also an important part of the solution. To drive the transition and become the world’s first fossil-free welfare state, collaboration between business, universities and the public sector is crucial. The work done by SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall within the framework of HYBRIT drives the development of the entire industry and is an international model”, says Minister of Trade and Industry of Sweden Ibrahim Baylan.
“It’s a crucial milestone and an important step towards creating a completely fossil-free value chain from mine to finished steel. We’ve now shown together that it’s possible, and the journey continues. By industrializing this technology in the future and making the transition to the production of sponge iron on an industrial scale, we will enable the steel industry to make the transition. This is the greatest thing we can do together for the climate,” says Jan Moström, President and CEO of LKAB.“It’s very pleasing that the HYBRIT partnership is once more taking an important step forward and that SSAB can now produce the first fossil-free steel and deliver to the customer. This shows how partnerships and collaboration can contribute to reducing emissions and building competitiveness for industries. Electrification is contributing to making fossil-free living possible within one generation,” says Anna Borg, President and CEO of Vattenfall.
SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall created HYBRIT, Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology, in 2016, with the aim of developing a technology for fossil-free iron- and steelmaking. In June 2021, the three companies were able to showcase the world’s first hydrogen-reduced sponge iron produced at HYBRIT’s pilot plant in Luleå. This first sponge iron has since been used to produce the first steel made with this breakthrough technology.
The goal is to deliver fossil-free steel to the market and demonstrate the technology on an industrial scale as early as 2026. Using HYBRIT technology, SSAB has the potential to reduce Sweden’s total carbon dioxide emissions by approximately ten per cent and Finland’s by approximately seven per cent.
“We’ll be converting to electric arc furnace in Oxelösund as early as 2025. This is the first production site within SSAB to make the transition, and it means that we’ll already be cutting large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions then. This is a major responsibility, one that we’re proud to shoulder, and it brings great opportunities to the region,” says Johnny Sjöström, Head of SSAB Special Steels Division.
Press Contacts:
Mia Widell, Public Relations Officer, SSAB, +46 76-527 25 01
Anders Lindberg, Group Media Relations Manager, LKAB, +46 (0)72-717 83 55
Magnus Kryssare, Press Officer, Vattenfall, +46 76 769 56 07
A piece of the future – The first object from a piece of the world’s first fossil-free steel.
“The candle holder, with its softly pleated rays beaming out from the candle, symbolizes the light at the end of the tunnel. It is a symbol of hope. It truly is… a piece of the future.”
Lena Bergström, Designer
Source: https://www.ssab.com/News/2021/08/The-worlds-first-fossilfree-steel-ready-for-delivery
As a proof of concept SSAB’s claim appears to be a significant advance, though notably absent from the press release is any discussion of the cost of using their HYBRIT green hydrogen reduction process, vs regular smelting with metallurgical coal. Of course higher cost might not be an impediment for some end users. For example, manufacturers of luxury automobiles might be willing to absorb the higher cost, so they can claim their product is more green.
I would love to know how SSAB’s HYBRIT process deals with hydrogen embrittlement. While hydrogen can be used in place of metallurgical coal carbon to chemically strip the oxygen from iron ore (iron oxide), steel which contains even traces of hydrogen tends to have very poor metallurgical properties. Note I am not suggesting SSAB’s green steel is metallurgically inferior – if their green steel is production ready, they are implicitly claiming they have found a solution to the hydrogen contamination problem.
They aren’t ‘claiming’ anything: it is a solid fact they have done it.
Everyone, please do not respond to the troll.
How much steel did they produce?
What sort of steel did they produce?
Steel is a big place. You make different steel for different end functions. You can’t just say ‘Steel’ if you are making a professional claim, you need to clarify what types of steel to be useful to industry.
A little-known fact is that “sponge iron” was first produced by SpongeBob, of kid tv fame. Note that sponge iron wasn’t given a nickname like “hardpants”, as that would be silly. It has many uses, primarily in kitchens, and is incredibly hard-wearing except that you do need to give it a bit of treatment with WD-40 or a drop of machine oil, to keep it from rusting.
China produces more steel than the rest of the world combined. More than ten times what the US produces. We have to buy steel from China to make our cars, build our bridges and buildings, and ships. Cities like Pittsburg, Birmingham, and Allentown are no longer big producers. Sweden will never be able to make a dent in the carbon steel market.
How do they know there is a need to cut CO2. Is good weather a clue? Or has the welfare state demanded it no matter what.
What an important breakthrough! I propose that regulations be immediately put in place to require all new wind turbine towers, re-bar and generator parts be made from this fossil free steel. It’s the environmentally responsible thing to do.
The attack on steel is just a proxy attack on human beings, the real target. None of this has anything to do with CO2. They just hate human beings.
“100% fossil-free hydrogen instead of coal and coke,”
One can only laugh at the stupidity of that statement.
Unless they used nuclear power to generate that hydrogen, the hydrogen process must, must, have produced more CO2 than a direct use of coal or coke would have done.
Coke is also used to remove oxygen from SiO2, the first step in making electronic grade wafer silicon needed for PV.
I didn’t know that, thanks Monte. It’s a good method, because the reaction product, CO2 leaves as a gas, which drives the reduction to completion.
We’ll be converting to electric arc furnace in Oxelösund as early as 2025
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Care to guess what the electrodes in arc furnaces are made of!?
Evil carbon. Thus the name change from carbon arc to electric arc.
But can you make carbon steels, the workhorse product for this commodity? I dont think so with hydrogen. Surely we aren’t converting all to stainless (even stainless is a carbon steel with chromium and other alloy ingredients).
At this moment Sweden has a mix of 64.5% Hydro, 22.8% Nuclear, some wind and some biofuels.
Hydrogen embrittlement is not changing from the current situation where for some steel grades heat treatment is used to let the hydrogen diffuse out of the solid steel down to required levels for that particular steel grade.
Iron ore pellets are reduced using hydrogen. The result is sponge iron that is melted in an Electric arc furnace. Carbon is added as an alloy element in the EAF, among with other alloying elements.
From the state of the liquid metal there is no difference compared to the Blast Furnace route in terms of dissolved hydrogen due to the high temperatures and mobility of hydrogen.
After the continuous casting the steel slabs are reheated to rolling temperature. IF those furnaces are operated with hydrogen, or green electricity, that step is fossil free too. Also here there is no difference in terms of hydrogen embrittlement since pH2O is high also when CH4 is used as fuel i.e. a lot of water vapor in the atmosphere of the heating furnaces in the rolling mill.
Steel is an alloy that contains carbon. Deliberately.
So if the steel does not contain carbon, is it still steel?
Asking for Griff.
Just sell the brittle steel vehicles to the Americans–they won’t know the difference from all the other planned obsolescence, battery fires, and cost-cutting measures while meeting the new MPG fleet mandates.
Hydrogen in the steel can be removed by annealing in order to avoid hydrogen embrittlement.