Thyssenkrupp’s green steel plan includes alternatives to hydrogen

Thyssenkrupp said its €3 billion plan to produce green steel could go ahead even if the government’s ambitions to create a leading hydrogen industry fail completely. This is reported by Reuters.

The group’s planned green steel plant in Duisburg is not affected by this, the company explained.

“The plant can also be operated with natural gas. In natural gas operation, around 50% of the CO2 emissions generated in conventional blast furnace operation can already be avoided,” the group said.

As noted, the plant will be virtually climate neutral if it runs entirely on green hydrogen produced using renewable energy.

The company said it is open to all technologies for further green transformation of the steel business and reserves all possible options for further decarbonization of steel production.

The country’s coalition government, which collapsed last year due to a number of issues, including disagreements over the approach to finance, sought to accelerate the decarbonization of the German steel industry by putting hydrogen at the heart of this strategy. However, doubts about the economic situation and regulatory uncertainty have led to delays in the project and concerns about whether the industry, including the steel industry, will be able to implement its plans.

At the same time, German opposition leader Friedrich Merz expressed doubt at an election event that the rapid transition of steel mills to hydrogen fuel would be successful, Bloomberg writes. He also pointed to the cost of green steel produced using hydrogen compared to the traditional route.

Analysts say that the cost of producing green hydrogen remains higher than expected. In 2024, a number of projects were abandoned.