US allocates $1.7bn funding for industrial decarbonisation with clean hydrogen
A billion dollars will go toward two H2-based clean steel programmes, including SSAB’s first commercial-scale Hybrit plant
The US Department of Energy has allocated nearly $1.7bn in government funding for six industrial projects using or producing clean hydrogen to reduce emissions, as part of a wider $6bn package.
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More than half of this announced funding — still subject to negotiation — will go toward making hydrogen-based direct-reduced iron (DRI) for green steelmaking.
The Industrial Demonstrations Program, which covers up to 50% of a successful project’s costs, has allocated $500m each to two steelmakers, Sweden's SSAB and Cleveland-Cliffs Steel Corporation, for DRI.
The government funding would also go toward expanding SSAB’s steelworks in Iowa, which currently houses an electric arc furnace for processing scrap steel, which would then use the hydrogen-derived iron to make steel.
The DOE also announced up to $75m for a project by aluminium supplier Constellium to fire hydrogen in its furnaces at a site in West Virginia.
ExxonMobil was another big winner from the funding call, with the government announcing $331.9m for its plan to replace fossil gas with hydrogen for industrial heat at its olefins plant in Baytown, Texas.
While the company has signed a letter of intent with shipping firm Maersk to supply its fleet of methanol dual-fuel vessels, it has not yet taken a final investment decision on the facility, which was originally scheduled to be commissioned in the second half of 2025.