Swedish specialty steel producer SSAB, together with Swedish iron ore producer LKAB and Swedish power company Vattenfall, have inaugurated their fossil-free steel joint venture HYBRIT’s pilot facility for fossil-free hydrogen gas storage at Svartöberget in Luleå, Sweden, SSAB has announced. The rock cavern storage facility is the first of its kind in the world. The test period will run until 2024.
The hydrogen storage facility will play a very important role in the overall value chain for fossil-free iron and steel production. Producing fossil-free hydrogen gas when there is a lot of electricity, for example when it is very windy, and using stored hydrogen gas when the electricity system is under strain, will ensure steady production of sponge iron, the raw material behind fossil-free steel.
The pilot plant has a size of 100 cubic meters. At a later stage, a full-scale hydrogen gas storage facility measuring 100,000 cubic meters to 120,000 cubic meters may be required, in which case it will be able to store up to 100 GWh of electricity converted to hydrogen gas.
