Renewable energy is set to provide energy and hydrogen to a steel plant in Sweden that aims to decarbonise the steel industry.
The H2 Green Steel project follows a demand for fossil-free steel, with the global steel industry currently representing around seven per cent of global CO2 emissions.
The plant will use renewables to provide electricity for steel making processes and for an electrolysis facility that will produce hydrogen to replace natural gas in the steel making process.
Hydrogen-based steel making heading to France
Set to be located in the Boden-Luleå region of northern Sweden, H2 Green Steel (H2GS) will begin production in 2024 and by 2030 will have annual production capacity of five million tons of steel, the company announced. The initiative is expected to create 1,500 jobs in the Norrbotten region.
H2GS will be led by Henrik Henriksson, currently CEO of Scania, and has taken inspiration from the HYBRIT project and its founders SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall. H2GS said it looks forward to a close collaboration with the founders, sharing the vision to position Sweden at the ‘forefront of fossil-free steel production’.
“We want to accelerate the transformation of the European steel industry,” said Carl-Erik Lagercrantz, chairman of the board of H2GS and battery maker Northvolt. “Electrification was the first step in reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the transportation industry. The next step is to build vehicles from high-quality fossil-free steel.”
Currently, H2GS is in the process of closing its series A equity financing of €50m from a group of investors including Vargas, Scania and SMS group amongst others.
“A Scania truck weighs about six tonnes and five of those are steel, which today unfortunately is produced with a substantial carbon footprint,” said Anders Williamsson, executive VP and head of purchasing at Scania.
“By investing in and partnering with H2 Green Steel we are now further accelerating the journey towards emission free products across the whole chain. It’s a significant increase in ambition, which will not only contribute to Scania delivering on the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement, but also raising the bar even further.”
The total financing for the first phase of the project will reportedly amount to around €2.5bn, raised through equity and green project financing. Morgan Stanley, Societe Generale and KfW IPEX-Bank are acting as financial advisors, while Sweco is advising in the engineering and permit process.
An interesting development line, requiring large funds from the state. Sweden gets away with the renewables scam of burning lots of trees as being carbon neutral: carbon dioxide in the air does not care where it came from, irrespective of what politicos want us to believe, so if there really was a climate emergency this would also have to be stopped.
I wonder if it would be better to go back to the original technologies of using wood charcoal for steel making rather than the hydrogen step: if I were an environmentalist maybe that is what I would advocate as the carbon then is used where coke would be used.
Honestly Jack; your convoluted, disingenuous argument is no more credible than Trump’s. Do us all a favour and accept that the wisdom/reality of AGW science and the incompetent politicos are NOT actually on the same side. ‘Top’ politicians pay lip service to the science, even on Covid-19, whenever it suits their ideological, ulterior motives. (wealth for the few, austerity for you.)
“It behoves engineers and scientists to question the wisdom of the politicians and lobby groups that dominate UK energy policy.” The lobby groups that have dominated UK energy policy over the past few decades are ALL for the (privatised) status quo – hence the ‘dash for gas’, delays on a fracking ban, more (CfD subsidised) thermal plant (+ CCS), the ludicrous ‘Capacity Market’ and the billions gifted to the monopoly National Grid, that should have paid for ALL the innovative anti-FF engineering we need to ensure prosperous, healthy living for future generations. Try telling them, you have their interests at heart. (Importing Chinese batteries, or opening a new coal mine!)
“large funds from the state” are a fraction of the private investments by people who really care about the devastating effects of global heating. . . (when you and I are pushing up daisies.)
https://www.h2-view.com/story/everything-we-know-about-afc-energys-involvement-in-extreme-e/
More taxpayers money is disbursed by maladministration, aka the ‘chumocracy’.
Postscript:-
“Shares in AFC Energy, which develops alkaline fuel cells, have picked up dramatically since the deal it signed with Swiss electrical systems maker ABB, lending some much-needed heft to a technology that has so far failed to deliver on its promise. Investors will have noted too the key appointment of the former head of engineering and industrialisation at Dyson, Dr Michael Rendall, who is a specialist in the conversion of ammonia into electricity, an area AFC Energy has been targeting. The company’s public profile is also set to be raised by its involvement in Extreme E races, an off-road racing series for electric cars, that will enable the firm to showcase the performance of its generators under extreme conditions.” – Undoubtedly, they’d qualify for R&D tax credits!?
Ammonia production still requires hydrogen and is an energy intensive process not well aligned with intermittent wind capacity. Some core numbers need to be set out on all of this or the tsunami of accusation and counter accusation will continue. Impartial, objective and independent analysis could and should produce these (but may not be allowed to). The golden pheasants of the environmental lobby sector and their fellow travelers seem immune to evidence based facts and analysis.
“Independent analysis could and should produce some core numbers.” But we have very little impartial, objective analysis because R&D and consultations are given the false remit to find a ‘commercial’ solution to every problem, when the private sector is incapable of delivering.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-test-trace-dido-harding-report-b1814714.html
The report said NHS test and trace must “wean itself off” its reliance on private-sector consultants, after figures showed it was still employing around 2,500 in early February on an estimated daily rate of £1,100 a head – with the highest-paid individual costing taxpayers £6,624 a day.
This government’s “Horizon Scanning” precludes researching scientific solutions, in favour of the discredited ‘market’ doctrine, which only looks for ideas that ‘make’ a ‘good’ business case!
The BEIS and the Environmental Audit Committee ARE totally “immune to evidence based facts and analysis,” which reaffirms the failure of ‘market-led’ neoliberal theory. There’s never been a ‘free market’ in IP rights and there’s no functional market in electricity or energy storage because they’re not even accurately defined. The ‘Capacity Market’ was/is an abject failure:-
http://www.smart-energy.com/industry-sectors/storage/emerging-energy-storage-use-cases-and-factors-driving-utility-adoption/
Arbitrage is a sick market joke being played on hapless electricity consumers. BSUoS charges have quadrupled to nearly £5/MWh, entirely due to National Grid’s parasitic incompetence. They could easily have built the first-of-a-kind for Before-Generator Energy Storage ten years ago, but ignored the novel solutions they were given. Purpose built Marine Energies have NO ‘intermittency’!