"Mercedes to source ‘green’ steel from Sweden"

A story of the posts not posted.

A few years ago,  I was idly scrolling through The Journal of Cleaner Production wondering how to celebrate the upcoming one-year anniversary of the worldwide realization of the covid when this pops up: "Adopting hydrogen direct reduction for the Swedish steel industry: A technological innovation system (TIS) study" and began flashing on the fortunes made by Krupp and Carnegie, and in the case of Charles M. Schwab, also lost.

From the JCP:

Volume 242, 1 January 2020, 118185

Abstract

The Swedish steel industry stands before a potential transition to drastically lower its CO₂ emissions using direct hydrogen reduction instead of continuing with coke-based blast furnaces. Previous studies have identified hydrogen direct reduction as a promising option. We build upon earlier efforts by performing a technological innovation system study to systematically examine the barriers to a transition to hydrogen direct reduction and by providing deepened quantitative empirics to support the analysis. We also add extended paper and patent analysis methodology which is particularly useful for identifying actors and their interactions in a technological system. We conclude that while the innovation system is currently focused on such a transition, notable barriers remain, particularly in coordination of the surrounding technical infrastructure and the issue of maintaining legitimacy for such a transition in the likely event that policies to address cost pressures will be required to support this development....

Didn't post it.

A few weeks later, then Financial Times, now Executive Editor, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence's Henry Sanderson retweeted:

Huge step: Steelmaker SSAB will bring CO2-free steel on the market by 2026, speeding up from earlier goal of 2035. The firm's entire production will be converted to hydrogen direct reduction by 2040, single-handedly cutting CO2 by 7% in Finland and 10% in Sweden. https://t.co/d9kkQDZ0Bu

— Lauri Myllyvirta (@laurimyllyvirta) January 28, 2020

Didn't post it.

In March 2021, living up to my reputation of not being a total moron I finally remembered  the story on the potential in Sweden:

Platts' "Commodity Tracker: 6 charts to watch this week"
We'll go with hydrogen in steelmaking because a trip down to the link-vault reveals a dozen links that we'll be visiting next month....

*****

Sweden has been working on getting the cost of hydrogen direct-reduction steel competitive but as the quick hit above notes, no one is there yet.
If interested Elsevier's ScienceDirect had a lucid overview last year:

Adopting hydrogen direct reduction for the Swedish steel industry: A technological innovation system (TIS) study

Then in August 2021 Kitco (on sidebar at right) reported: "Mining News Sweden's HYBRIT delivers world's first fossil-free steel"

Didn't post it. 

So now, seeing the headline story I'm thinking "I should post that." 

From electrive, June 8:

Mercedes-Benz has signed a supply contract with the Swedish start-up H2 Green Steel (H2GS) for around 50,000 tonnes of virtually CO2-free steel per year for its European press plants. The steel is to be used in various series models of the carmaker.

Mercedes-Benz has already held a stake in H2 Green Steel since 2021. The start-up plans to begin production in 2025 – and should thereupon enable the Stuttgart-based company to bring virtually CO2-free steel into series production. The above-mentioned delivery volume applies to the carmaker’s European press plants. At the same time, both sides have now additionally made public a signed letter of intent according to which they also aim to establish a supply chain for green steel produced in North America for the local Mercedes-Benz manufacturing plants.

H2 Green Steel uses hydrogen and electricity from 100 percent renewable energy sources instead of coking coal for its steel production. As a result, the manufacturing process is considered virtually CO₂-free. “By contrast, steel produced using a classic blast furnace, emits an average of more than two tons of CO₂ per ton” Mercedes-Benz points out in a statement. In the Swedish company’s new approach, hydrogen serves as a reducing gas that releases and binds the oxygen from the iron ore. Unlike the use of coking coal, no CO₂ is produced in the process, but water vapour. According to Mercedes, H2GS is aiming for a footprint of 0.4 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of steel at the start of delivery....

....MUCH MORE

I'm not sure if or how H2GS skipped past the other Swedes at the HYBRIT joint venture (Vattenfall, SSAB and miner Luossavaara Kiirunavaara) but at least we got it on the blog this time.