Sweden – In order to support the decarbonization of the steel industry, Hitachi Energy and H2 Green Steel have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to make use of electrification, digitization, and hydrogen.

By removing almost all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the steel production process, the Swedish start-up H2 Green Steel hopes to hasten the greatest technological shift in the history of the steel industry. In addition to a giga scale electrolyzer plant for the creation of green hydrogen, it intends to construct its first steel plant free of fossil fuels in Boden, Sweden.

CO2 emissions

The Memorandum of Understanding outlines a partnership supported by three (3) pillars: 1) Hitachi Energy’s equity investment in H2 Green Steel; 2) Hitachi Energy products and services required to build and enhance the electrical infrastructure to power steel production and giga scale electrolyzer plants; and 3) green steel to be used in Hitachi Energy products once H2 Green Steel begins production.

Expanding steel production has led to higher energy consumption overall and a rise in CO2 emissions over the past ten years, which accounts for about 8% of all industrial carbon emissions globally.

H2 Green Steel will use Hitachi Energy’s capabilities to optimize customers’ value chain to plan, develop, run, and maintain the power infrastructure, which includes IT and operational technology, beginning with the Boden plant (OT). A fully integrated process using end-to-end digitalization will be used to produce steel in Boden instead of coal, reducing CO2 emissions by up to 95% compared to conventional steelmaking. This will be the same as taking 3 million passenger cars off the road each year.