Green Steel Project Hits Hydrogen Storage Milestone

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Sweden's leading fossil-free steel project, HYBRIT, has reached another milestone with the successful creation of a rock cavern storage facility for hydrogen.

Now in operation at Svartöberget near the Lulea plant, the pilot storage facility is understood to be first of its kind in the world for storing fossil-free hydrogen gas. It forms part of the green steel HYBRIT project, which stands for the Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology Demonstration, that has replaced fossil-based fuel with green hydrogen to make sponge iron. It is being developed by steelmaker SSAB (Stockholm, Sweden), Sweden's state-owned mining giant LKAB (Lulea) and energy company Vattenfall (Stockholm). The HYBRIT process is based on direct reduction of iron ore using renewable energy and hydrogen gas.

The pilot facility, a lined rock cavern (LRC), has a capacity of 100 cubic meters and uses the same technology used in recent decades in Sweden for storing natural gas. The gas is stored about 30 meters below ground level and 100 meters from the entrance. Stored hydrogen will be used when electricity from the windfarm is lower due to adverse weather conditions. Initial pressure tests were conducted with water, which confirmed the facility's mechanical stability, tightness and pressure capacity. The storage facility was then filled with hydrogen gas and reached the maximum operating pressure of 250 bar. At a later stage, a full-scale hydrogen gas storage facility measuring 100,000 to 120,000 cubic meters will be required. This will be able to store up to 100 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity converted to hydrogen gas, which is enough to supply a full-sized sponge iron factory for three to four days.

"Hydrogen gas and its storage are central to our transition," said Lars Ydreskog, director of strategic projects at LKAB. "In just four years, HYBRIT technology will be used for the production of fossil-free sponge iron on a large scale at a first demonstration facility in Gällivare. LKAB will become one of Europe's biggest hydrogen producers, and this pilot project will provide valuable knowledge for the continuing work on creating the world's first fossil-free value chain for the iron and steel industry."

Mikael Nordlander, director industry decarbonisation at Vattenfall, added: "The use of large-scale hydrogen storage means that the industry will have a more robust and plannable supply of hydrogen from fossil-free electricity, even when the electricity system becomes more dependent on the weather. This enables us to make very efficient use of our fossil-free wind power production and store the hydrogen when the weather is very windy."

Industrial Info is tracking Sweden's other major green steel project at nearby Boden. H2 Green Steel (H2GS), which recently completed second-round funding, is currently under construction. The goal is to start production in 2024 with an estimated production capacity of 2.5 million tonnes of high-quality steel, ramping up to 5 million tonnes by 2030. The company stated that it has already pre-sold almost 60% of its estimated volumes.

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