Green hydrogen will play a key role in transforming heavy industry, making a decarbonized future possible. Our green hydrogen, made from hydro and wind-powered electricity and water, harnesses the power of nature. In Boden, we will produce green hydrogen at an unprecedented scale in a facility many times larger than any existing electrolyzer plants.
We will produce high-quality green iron. In our plant we reduce the iron ore into green iron using 100% green hydrogen. Instead of massive CO2 emissions from reducing iron with coal, we will be emitting steam; just plain water. This game-changing technology will enable steelmakers around the world to use hot briquetted iron to make different steel products with close to zero emissions.
Our green steel will be the first near-zero product we offer our customers globally. With up to 95% reduction in CO₂ emissions, it will be the greenest ore-based steel produced at scale. Together with our customers, we are creating a market for green steel.
The process starts in the 700-megawatt electrolyzer plant – the largest in Europe – where green hydrogen is produced via electrolysis of water.
Here, we use electricity to split water into its constituent parts: hydrogen and oxygen. The electricity we use in this process is 100% renewable.
Hydrogen powered by renewable electricity
In the next step, we take the green hydrogen and let it do its magic – to reduce iron ore and turn it into green sponge iron. This will later be transformed into steel. Here’s how the reduction works:
The hydrogen reacts with oxygen in the iron ore, transforming the iron ore into sponge iron (direct reduced iron), and producing water steam as a by-product. This takes place in a reactor inside the 145-meter-tall direct reduction tower.
Traditionally, coal-derived coke is used to reduce iron ore, emitting large quantities of CO₂. The bulk of the overall emissions reduction occurs during this step, because we are using green hydrogen instead of coal.
Direct-reduced iron powered by green hydrogen
Next up is the actual steelmaking – where green iron becomes green steel. This starts in the melt shop. Here, the still-hot green iron is charged into an electric arc furnace, where it is mixed with steel scrap. It is then melted using a powerful electrode, heating the mixture to more than 1600° C.
Once the steel is molten, alloys are added in a ladle furnace and, in some cases, a vacuum recirculation process is used to remove unwanted gases. These steps help us achieve the exact composition needed for the specific product.
Next, we transform the molten steel into solid products. We start by casting it into a slab and then quickly rolling it into a long sheet while it is still hot. Then, it is cooled with water and rolled into a hot-rolled coil. This whole process is seamless, keeping the steel hot all the way from the electric arc furnace to the hot rolling. This way, we reduce energy consumption and avoid the natural gas typically used at this stage.
The hot-rolled coil is the most basic flat steel product and the first product of our green steel facility. It can either be sold as-is or undergo additional processing to become other premium products.
Until now, the steel has been black. The black scale is now removed from the surface, giving the steel a metallic shine, in a process called pickling. The steel sheet is then rolled again to make it thinner. Now brittle, it is heated in an annealing furnace to make it stronger and more malleable before being cooled and rolled into a coil. This makes for a much shinier and thinner product called cold-rolled coil. From here, the steel can undergo various treatments depending on the customers’ requirements.
In this last step, the thin steel is passed through a bath of molten zinc, which allows a thin coating to form. This is called galvanizing and provides corrosion resistance. The result is a more premium product called hot-dip galvanized steel. The finished steel is then ready be shipped to customers all over the world, to become cars, white goods, radiators and much more.
Made with green hydrogen and green iron.
