A Swedish company backed by investors, including the founder of Spotify, plans to build a steel production facility in the north of the country, which will be powered by what it describes as “the largest green hydrogen plant in the world.”
H2 Green Steel, founded in 2020, will focus on producing steel made through a “fossil fuel-free manufacturing process” and is looking to supply European manufacturers with their final product, CNBC reports.
In a previous announcement, the company that will be chaired by Henrik Henriksson said that steel production will start in 2024 and will be based in the Swedish region of Norrbotten, and by 2030, the goal is for the company to have the capacity to produce 5 million tons of steel annually.
“The climate crisis is the greatest challenge of our time,” Henrikson said in a statement released on Tuesday. Given the impact of steel on the sustainable development of other industries, the rapid change in the steel industry is crucial. ”
According to the International Energy Agency, the iron and steel sector is responsible for 2.6 gigatonnes of direct carbon dioxide emissions each year, a figure that in 2019 was greater than direct emissions from sectors such as cement and chemicals.
The steel sector is “the largest industrial consumer of coal, providing about 75% of its energy demand.”
The hydrogen plant of H2 Green Steel will be around 800 megawatts, and its final energy product will be used instead of coal and coke in the steelmaking process.
Hydrogen can be produced in a number of ways; One of them involves the use of electrolysis, with a current that splits water into oxygen and hydrogen, and if the electricity used in the process comes from a renewable source such as wind or solar energy, then it is called “green” or “renewable” hydrogen.
The largest shareholder in “H2 Green Steel” is the investment company “Vargas”, which is the co-founder of the “Northvolt” battery maker, and is currently completing a financing round of 50 million euros (about $ 61.1 million) that includes Daniel Eck, founder of Spotify. And others.