What is Green Hydrogen?
Green hydrogen is a process produced by splitting water by electrolysis. This will produce and separate hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen can be used and oxygen will be ventured into the atmosphere without any negative effects. Moreover, the steel industry is responsible for around 240 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually, which is expected to double at an exponential rate by 2030. So Green hydrogen, in particular, is one of the cleanest sources of energy, with close to zero emissions for steel production.
To achieve electrolysis, electricity or power is required. To produce electricity, renewable energy sources, such as wind or solar will be used. After getting the power through natural resources electrolysis will be achieved. It makes green hydrogen the cleanest option – hydrogen from renewable energy sources without CO2. Green hydrogen has become a global buzzword, especially as the world is facing its biggest-ever energy crisis and the threat of climate change is turning into a reality.
How Green Hydrogen is Used in Steel Industry
Direct reduction of iron is the removal of oxygen from iron ore in the solid state without melting during the steel making process.
Green Hydrogen can be used to produce Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) as the metallic feedstock instead of natural gas or coal which eliminates the sources of carbon from the steelmaking process and is the best and very close way to carbon neutrality. These will serve as valuable inputs for future scaling of implementing green hydrogen in the iron and steel sector.
The current method is mostly followed by all the steelmaking industry because it is low cost and can flexibly accept a range of iron ore qualities. But it can’t be decarbonised and is a great challenge for the steel industry to decrease the carbon rate in the production as the future aims for green technology.
Government Allocation
The Government is also allocated more than 300+ crores in the (FY30) for using Green Hydrogen in the steel industry. It aims to facilitate the use of Green hydrogen to produce DRI instead of using hydrogen in the blast furnace process. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy onFebruary 2024 released schemes of implementation of green hydrogen. Also the Indian Government aims to make India as a Global hub for the Green Hydrogen production. By 2030 Green hydrogen production is expected to reach 5 MMT with associated renewable energy. This program also consists of targeting domestic electrolysers manufacturing in a more effective way.
Challenges in Opting Green Hydrogen in Steel Plants?
There are many challenges in producing Green Hydrogen since India is aiming to zero net emission by 2070 in the steel industry.
- Mainly technological adaptation is the biggest challenge for all the existing steel plants since they will completely use Hydrogen as a primary source.
- The next thing is transportation process and infrastructure setup of carrying the hydrogen and storage tanks
- The cost of the hydrogen based process will be at a higher cost since the investments in new equipment and infrastructure setup. There will be a great challenge for steel industries.
- Hydrogen-based steel production offers carbon emissions reductions. But capturing and storing CO2 emissions generated during this process will be somewhat of a difficult challenge. Developing cost-effective CCS technologies is very important for steel sectors.