HYBRIT; a collaboration between SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall

Fossil-free steel is happening.

Coking coal has been an essential component in steel production for more than thousand years. Today, this makes the sector one of the largest emitters of CO₂. Yet change is happening. HYBRIT (Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology) – a collaboration between steel producer SSAB, mining company LKAB and Vattenfall – started in 2017 and is aiming to transform the process.

In July 2021, SSAB Oxelösund rolled the first steel produced using HYBRIT technology, i.e., reduced by 100% fossil-free hydrogen instead of coal and coke, with good results. 

A new steel making process to eliminate CO₂

HYBRIT can reduce Sweden’s CO₂ emissions by 10% and Finland’s by 7% if implemented at full-scale. In 2018, the construction of a pilot plant in Luleå, Sweden, began. The full-scale fossil-free process for steel manufacturing should be ready by 2035.

The aim is to decarbonise the steel industry by replacing the coking coal (traditionally used in steel production to convert iron ore to iron) with hydrogen made from fossil-free electricity (primarily wind power) and water. A process called direct reduction will replace the current blast furnace process. The by-product will be water, which in turn can be recovered for the production of hydrogen gas.

In the summer of 2022, the rock cavern storage facility for fossil-free hydrogen in Luleå was inaugurated. The storage facility is an important part of the value chain for fossil-free iron and steel production.