HYBRIT achieves hydrogen-fueled iron, steel production at industrial scale

The joint initiative launched by Swedish energy company Vattenfall, steel company SSAB, and a mining firm has resulted in the production of fossil-free steel, which it says can be made on an industrial scale.

The HYBRIT initiative had been ongoing for over six years; it has now presented its results to the Swedish Energy Agency – with the recommendation that steel production with elimination of carbon dioxide emissions is possible.

According to the report, the CO2 emissions can be eliminated by replacing coal and coke with fossil-free energy sources like green hydrogen.

Rough estimates suggest that the adoption of HYBRIT technology can reduce net carbon dioxide emissions in Sweden by over 10 percent.

According to a press release by Vattenfall, this is the first project which shows that fossil fuel-free value chain – from ore to steel- works on a semi-industrial scale. The results submitted now are based on findings which occurred between the year 2018 and 2024.

According to the results, the direct reduced iron produced with the HYBRIT process has superior characteristics compared to iron produced with fossil fuels.

Findings of HYBRIT initiative

The initiative was launched with the intention of bringing about a fundamental change in the iron and steel industry.

According to the press release, one of the key results achieved is the development of a new hydrogen-based technology for efficient fossil-free iron and steel production with zero tons of CO2 emissions per ton of steel.

Furthermore, the company also claims that the fossil fuel-free sponge iron produced from this method also has better properties than iron reduced with fossil gases.

The iron product is carbon-free and has a high metallization degree (98-99%); it is more resistant to mechanical pressure, drops, and abrasion than comparable industrial references and has stable chemical properties.

During the process, the researchers also succeeded in demonstrating successful long-term operation of alkaline electrolyzers for hydrogen production and storage. The final key finding was the development of an efficient process practice for melting sponge iron into crude steel in an electric arc furnace.

With these interesting findings, the project will now continue to the next phase where it will be implemented on an industrial scale.

Making steel at an industrial scale

One of the steps in the process is converting iron ore pellets into iron with the use of green hydrogen, with just water as the byproduct.

Direct reduction with hydrogen and melting in an electric arc furnace produces 42 kg of biogenic CO ₂ per ton of directly reduced iron, compared to 383 kg of fossil CO ₂ per ton in a conventional natural gas process where the heating of the reduction gas is excluded from the comparison, according to the press release .

“The focus of HYBRIT’s technical development has been to build up expertise and create technical conditions for the implementation of a fossil-free process in a full-scale production,” said Ulf Spolander, General Manager of Hybrit Development AB.

“The knowledge and experience we have developed during the project will now be focused on continuing the process development, primarily to support the owners´ industrialization projects.”

The encouraging results seen during the pilot phase have opened the doors for the implementation of HYBRIT process on an industrial scale.

The next step will be the setting up of a demonstration plant in Gällivare, which will be carried out by LKAB.

The HYBRIT project has been awarded funding by the EU Innovation Fund and by Industriklivet.