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Photo: Salzgitter AG

Green hydrogen from Uniper for Salzgitter steel production

The energy group Uniper and the steel producer Salzgitter AG have concluded a cooperation agreement to supply the SALCOS project of Germany's second largest steel producer with green hydrogen at the production site in Salzgitter...

The energy group Uniper and the steel producer Salzgitter AG have concluded a cooperation agreement to supply the SALCOS project of Germany's second-largest steel producer at its production site in Salzgitter with green hydrogen.

With SALCOS (Salzgitter Low CO2-Steelmaking), Salzgitter wants to set about reducing CO2 emissions. Instead of using coking coal, green hydrogen is to be used to remove oxygen from the iron ore in the blast furnace. This method can reduce emissions, and steel could - if sufficient climate-neutral hydrogen is available and the plants are converted - gradually become 'green'. In a first stage, the steel producer wants to reduce CO2 emissions by around 30 percent.

But this will require a lot of green hydrogen, and Uniper, among others, wants to supply it. The Düsseldorf-based energy company is in the process of building up electrolysis capacities to produce hydrogen. For example, it plans to produce H2 at Uniper's Dutch site in Maasvlakte, an industrial and port area west of Rotterdam, using electricity from renewable sources. Uniper is also working on using the Wilhelmshaven site for the direct import of hydrogen. Here, Uniper is developing two projects at once. First, an import terminal for ammonia is to be built, where ammonia can be converted back into hydrogen. Secondly, a large-scale electrolysis plant with a capacity of up to 1,000 MW is to be built in Wilhelmshaven, for which offshore wind power from new projects in the North Sea will be used in the future. New projects because the current regulatory requirements of the EU Commission stipulate that only green electricity from additional renewable plants may be used for the production of electrolysis hydrogen.

To supply Salzgitter with hydrogen, the company intends to cooperate with other companies, as the corresponding infrastructure has yet to be created. Uniper and Salzgitter announced that they will work together with other "renowned partners" on the hydrogen pipeline network that is still being developed and the cavern storage facilities that are to be developed.

Hydrogen
Article by Imke Herzog
Article by Imke Herzog