The project aims to decarbonise Austria’s steel industry using green hydrogen.
Suits and shovels were both looking sharp when the Hy4Smelt project marked its official construction start on September 25 in Linz, Austria.
As part of the HI2 Valley, the project targets the traditionally carbon-intensive steel industry, replacing coal with clean hydrogen derived from renewable energy sources.
The collaboration involves the metallurgical research center K1-MET (member of the large Austrian green hydrogen project HI2 Valley) and steel producer voelstalpine. In addition, iron- and steel producer Primetals and mining company Rio Tinto collaborate to make the plant a reality.
The demonstration plant will be the first of its kind to combine two distinct technologies: hydrogen-fuelled electric smelting and hydrogen-based ‘reduction’ (a purification process) of metallic ore.
“These solutions pave the way for a new era in steel production,” says Dr. Alexander Fleischhandel, CTO and Head of Green Steel at Primetals Technologies, in a press release.
The Hy4Smelt project is one 17 hydrogen projects in the HI2 Valley, a € 588 mio. collaboration across the Austrian regions of Carinthia, Styria and Upper Austria.
Over 6 years, the HI2 Valley projects aim to establish a yearly production and utilisation of more than 10,000 tonnes of green hydrogen, saving 200,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalents by 2030. The industrial-scale demonstration plant in Linz is scheduled to begin first production by the end of 2027.
“Seeing construction underway of the globally unique Hy4Smelt demonstration plant once again confirms our technological and innovative leadership, also in the field of green steel production,” says Herbert Eibensteiner, CEO of voestalpine AG.