World's first commercial-scale green steel plant on track for FID after ordering 700MW of hydrogen electrolysers
Contract with H2 Green Steel is German manufacturer Thyssenkrupp Nucera's second largest ever order, following landmark 2.2GW Neom agreement
Pioneering Swedish start-up H2 Green Steel has ordered more than 700MW of alkaline electrolysers from German manufacturer Thyssenkrupp Nucera, as it nears a final investment decision (FID) on its flagship green steel facility.
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The plant in Boden, northeast Sweden, is set to be the world’s first commercial-scale green steel factory in operation when it comes on line in 2025 — and it will also make H2 Green Steel one of the largest green hydrogen producers in Europe.
While traditional steelmaking requires coking coal to extract iron from iron-oxide ore — to both melt it and remove oxygen at the same time — H2 Green Steel will use green hydrogen instead, and then use renewables-powered electric arc furnaces to turn iron into steel in an almost entirely carbon-free process.
The start-up aims to produce two-and-a-half million tonnes of steel a year in Boden by the end of 2025, ramping up to five million tonnes by 2030.
The Swedish firm is currently in the process of converting offtake announcements to binding long-term agreements, signing three supply contracts worth more than €2bn ($2.16bn) in early May and late April, including a €1.79bn deal with Italian steel group Marcegaglia — which is also one of the start-up’s investors.
The 700MW of electrolysers would form one of the largest green hydrogen projects in Europe when it comes on line.
“The electrolysis plant in Boden will be many times bigger than most existing electrolyser plants today,” says H2 Green Steel’s chief technology officer Maria Persson Gulda.
“Combining our own strong technical expertise with that of a proven high-performance and high-efficiency electrolyser like Thyssenkrupp Nucera's gives us a solid head start in the growing green hydrogen economy, which we will use to transform heavy industry with its difficult-to-degrade process emissions.”
Thyssenkrupp Nucera already has orders from the 2.2GW Neom complex in Saudi Arabia, Shell’s 200MW Holland Hydrogen I facility in the Netherlands, and Unigel’s 60MW plant in Brazil, which will ramp up to 240MW in a future second phase.
These projects, including Boden, all require capacity to be installed by the mid-2020s, with Unigel due to have its electrolysers delivered by the end of this year.