Danieli, Leonardo and Saipem partner for green steel using hydrogen
Three Italian companies agreed to use their expertise to produce green steel to help reduce CO2 emission. Danieli (a supplier of equipment to the metal industry), Saipem (an oilfield services company), Leonardo (a high technology company) signed an agreement to work on projects in both Italy and elsewhere for converting energy-intensive steelmaking process to environmentally friendly technology. The partners will jointly supply their technology and services to reduce CO2 in the steelmaking process, in line with the national, regional CO2 emission goals.
The three partners will use the new technology solution, which replaces the existing steelmaking blast furnaces route with a hybrid electric-powered furnace that is integrated into a direct iron ore reduction plant. The process uses a mixture of methane and hydrogen for steelmaking, releasing less emission.
According to the agreement, Danieli will supply direct-reduction technological equipment and electric furnaces. Saipem will be responsible for the plant’s construction and looking after all the technological integration system for the natural gas, hydrogen, and CO2 capture system. Leonardo will be taking care of the digital aspects to optimise the production processes and protect components.
The partners will integrate the Energiron technology, which Danieli and Tenova jointly develop. The technology is based on the direct reduction of iron ore using natural gas. Hydrogen can also be used as reducing gas mixed with natural gas without any significant modification to the original process method. Energiron technology claims that hydrogen has always been the principal reducing agent in this technology.
H2 Bulletin finds that Energiron technology has been installed in five steel plants so far, which are Emirates Steel 1 (2 million tonnes/year), Emirates Steel 2 (2 million tonnes/year), Suez Steel (2 million tonnes/year), Nucor (2.5 million tonnes/year) and Ezz Rolling Mill (2 million tonnes/year).
