The world’s first shipment of so-called “green steel” has been delivered in Sweden using new technology developed by HYBRIT, which allowed the steel to be produced without coal or other fossil fuels. The first customer to receive a delivery of green steel was the Gothenburg-based truck manufacturer Volvo Group. HYBRIT, or Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology, was established in 2016 in a joint venture between three Swedish companies – namely the steel manufacturer SSAB, the mining and mineral company LKAB and the electricity supplier Vattenfall.
According to HYBRIT, the new technology means replacing the process of using blast furnaces with hydrogen. Unlike blast furnaces, which require large amounts of fossil fuels, hydrogen is produced uses water and electricity from fossil-free sources.
The Volvo Group plans to start manufacturing components and prototype vehicles with green steel this year
The long-term goal of HYBRIT is to transform Sweden’s iron and steel industry by stop dependence on fossil fuels and reduce carbon dioxide emissions and expand its use of technology to produce fossil-free steel on one industrial scale to 2026. Speaking after the arrival of the first green steel consignment, LKAB CEO and said CEO Jan Moström“It is a crucial milestone and an important step towards creating a completely fossil-free value chain from mine to finished steel”. Moström added that a transition to green steel is the “best we can do together for the climate”. The Volvo Group plans to start manufacturing components and prototype vehicles with green steel this year, followed by small-scale series production starting 2022.
An alloy consisting mostly of iron and a small amount of carbon is steel among the most important materials needed for manufacturing and construction around the world. Steel manufacturing, one of the most carbon-intensive industries, is currently valued at contributes 7 – 9% of greenhouse gas emissions globally. The steel manufacturer SSAB currently assesses that it alone is responsible 10% of Sweden’s total carbon dioxide emissions, and 7% of those in neighboring Finland.
Steel production … is currently estimated to contribute 7-9% of global greenhouse gas emissions
The World Steel Association, the international trade body for the iron and steel industry, claims that the steel manufacturing process has already seen major changes over time, including a 60% reduction in the amount of energy used per tonne of steel since 1960. In its report 2021 World Steel in Figures, the association estimated that a total of approx. 1.88 million tonnes of steel was produced in 2020, with global demand for steel expected to increase further as the world emerges from the covid-19 pandemic.
A transition from using fossil fuels to renewable hydrogen in the steel industry and other industrial sectors will be an important part of the European Union’s target of achieving net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and, in turn, limiting the rise in global temperatures to a good below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels according to the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
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