Watch out HIsarna! Something is breathing down your neck!

Steel making is one of the usual suspects when it comes to CO2 emissions, accounting for 7% of CO2 emissions globally.

 

For more than a quarter of a century (they started in 1990) our own Hoogovens – oops, Tata Steel, umm, Thyssenkrupp Tata Steel, has been working on their HIsarna project to reduce this bad image. It would do away with the need to make coke and sinter the iron ore into pellets, and would reduce the carbon footprint by some 15%. That is something to look forward to. But it must be guaranteed to run for at least 10 years, day and night. Hence the long gestation.

Now a new process, called Hybrit, is in the planning stages in Sweden. It would reduce CO₂ emissions almost entirely by using hydrogen instead of carbon. That is something for HIsarna to look over their shoulder for.

A brochure describes how Hybrit will work. (It is a variation on the direct reduction of ore, but then with hydrogen instead with natural gas)

The design of a pilot for a Hybrit plant has started this spring and the pilot phase is planned to last until 2024, after which it will move to the demonstration phase in 2025-2035. With the deliberate progress of HIsarna in mind, this might be overly optimistic.