Swedish specialty steel producer SSAB has announced that it plans to build a globally-unique pilot plant for fossil-free steel in northern Sweden together with Swedish iron ore producer LKAB and Swedish power company Vattenfall, as part of their fossil-free steel joint venture (JV) HYBRIT. The planning and designing of the pilot plant will be initiated in spring of the current year.
According to SSAB’s statement, the planning and designing is expected to cost SEK 20 million ($2.53 million) and the Swedish Energy Agency will finance half of the project, while the other half will be covered by SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall. The Swedish Energy Agency has earlier contributed SEK 60 million ($7.6 million) to the pre-feasibility study and a four-year-long research project. The initiative could reduce Sweden’s total carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent and those in Finland by seven percent. The reduction in Sweden has been described as being crucial if Sweden is to be able to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
“It is with great pleasure that we can announce that we are giving the green light to the initiative to proceed with the planning and designing of a pilot plant for fossil-free steel in Luleå and the iron ore deposits in Norrbotten. We hope to be able to break the ground already before the summer. This spring we will also start investigating the possibilities of broadening the project to include Finland,” stated Mårten Görnerup, CEO of HYBRIT.
Meanwhile, already before a solution for fossil-free steelmaking is in place, SSAB aims to cut its joint carbon dioxide emissions in Sweden by 25 percent by as early as 2025, through conversion of the blast furnace in Oxelösund, Sweden. Between 2030 and 2040, SSAB’s aim is to also convert the blast furnaces in Luleå, Sweden and Raahe, Finland to eliminate most of the remaining CO2 emissions and to attain the target of being fossil-free by 2045.