Is green steel getting closer?
Summary: Norwegian company Blastr Green Steel is planning to establish a green steel plant with an integrated hydrogen production facility in Inkoo, Finland. Blastr has entered into a Letter of Intent with Nordic energy company Fortum that provides Blastr exclusive rights to utilise an existing industrial site located in Inkoo. The four-billion-euro investment is expected to create up to 1,200 direct jobs in the operations phase. The production is planned to start by end of 2026.
Why this is important: Steel is the biggest single "hard to decarbonise sector, so finding a solution that reduces its GHG emissions is important. It looks as if green hydrogen is part of the answer ... which raises some different questions about when this technology reaches cost parity.
The big theme: The steel industry is responsible for about 7% of all man made global carbon emissions. But, there is another way of producing steel, one that could end up making both financial value and environmental values sense. That way (grossly simplified) is to use green hydrogen instead of coal to chemically reduce the iron ore. Its not going to be easy, and it will probably require a green premium, but its clear that if net zero targets are to be achieved, this is a challenge that needs to be solved, and that we need to start working on it now.
The details
Summary of a story from Green Steel World:
Norwegian company Blastr Green Steel is planning to establish a green steel plant with an integrated hydrogen production facility in Inkoo, Finland. Blastr has entered into a Letter of Intent with Nordic energy company Fortum that provides Blastr exclusive rights to utilise an existing industrial site located in Inkoo. The €4bn investment is expected to create up to 1,200 direct jobs in the operations phase, with production planned to start by the end of 2026. This project appears to be more speculative and less advanced than the H2 Green Steel project, which announced in September 2022 that it had received support from leading European financial institutions for its €3.5 billion debt financing.
