German industrial engineering and steel production giant Thyssenkrupp [and] German energy company Steag are planning a 500MW hydrogen electrolysis plant intended to power steel production.
The HydrOxy Hub Walsum project is expected to be connected to the grid and producing green, renewable-powered hydrogen by as soon as 2025. Set to be built in Walsum, its proximity to Thyssenkrupp’s Duisburg steel production plant will also avoid the need to construct an elaborate supply system and allow the project and subsequent hydrogen powered steel production to be implemented much quicker.
The HydrOxy Hub Walsum hydrogen project is intended as a first step in decarbonising steel production in Germany and act as a test case to be later expanded across Europe.
Thyssenkrupp’s steel production facility in Duisburg is “the largest steel location in the EU,” according to Dr. Ralf Schiele, responsible within the STEAG management for the Market and Technology divisions, and subsequently serves as a promising example of the value of climate-neutral steel production.
Thyssenkrupp’s plan to decarbonise its steel production comes just over a month after Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) began producing aluminium powered by electricity generated by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in the United Arab Emirates.
The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) jointly announced in January that the Mohammed bin Rashid solar project in Dubai had started generating electricity for EGA’s aluminium smelter, providing 560,000 megawatt-hours of power each year, sufficient for the production of 40,000 tonnes of aluminium.
