Japan’s largest steelmaker claims hydrogen injection has cut its test blast furnace emissions by a third
Nippon Steel plans to deploy H2-based process at Kimitsu works at beginning of 2026
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In order to produce steel, iron ore must first have its oxygen removed in a process called “reduction”. This is traditionally done through the use of coking coal in a blast furnace, which both reduces iron ore and produces vast amounts of heat that melt the metal. However, this is an emissions-intensive process.
While hydrogen can be used instead of coke as a direct reduction agent, this reaction is difficult to sustain as it is endothermic rather than exothermic, which also means no heat for melting the iron.
Some companies, such as Sweden’s H2 Green Steel, plan to directly reduce iron with hydrogen and use renewables-powered electric arc furnaces for heat, which could theoretically reduce emissions by 95%.
Nippon Steel aims to reduce existing blast furnace emissions by 50% through hydrogen injection, and had previously announced it had cut CO2 by 22% from using the process in August.
The Japanese steelmaker plans to start using its COURSE 50 technology — which recycles hydrogen generated when coking coal is fired in a blast furnace for use as a reducing agent — at its No. 2 blast furnace in its East Nippon Works in Kimitsu from January 2026, and deploy the Super COURSE50 process of injecting externally-bought H2 by 2050.