The German industrial group ThyssenKrupp has received the green light from its executive and supervisory boards to build a hydrogen furnace that will enable the production of low-carbon steel.
The company will invest over one billion euros in the construction of the direct reduction plant in Duisburg, according to the dpa agency. The construction contract, as announced by ThyssenKrupp on Thursday, is expected to be awarded in the coming weeks.
The group expects that the production of 'green' steel in Duisburg will commence in 2026, the statement adds.
In this facility, climate-neutral hydrogen will replace coke, which was previously used in blast furnaces for extracting oxygen from iron ore. After further processing, raw iron is obtained, which can be further processed as it has been done before.
– The enormous investment has been approved amid the company's restructuring, in an environment that is also very challenging for everyone – said ThyssenKrupp CEO Martina Merz.
The approval of the investment, as stated in the announcement, emphasizes the group's promise 'to make a decisive and primarily rapid contribution to the green transformation of steel'.
They also emphasize that such a large project depends on public financing, including subsidies, noting, however, that they will also participate with their own funds. They did not specify concrete figures, but in earlier statements, they estimated the total costs of the project at around 1.2 billion euros, dpa notes.
