Centre sanctions three pilot projects for using Hydrogen in steel production

The objectives of the scheme were to identify advance technologies for utilizing green hydrogen in steelmaking, through pilot projects. These pilot projects can demonstrate safe and secure operations of green hydrogen-based steel making processes, validating technical feasibility and performance, evaluating their economic viability thereby leading to low-carbon iron and steel production.

Accordingly, the proposals were invited for three components - pilot project to produce DRI using 100 per cent hydrogen using vertical shaft, use of hydrogen in blast furnace to reduce coal/coke consumption and injection of hydrogen in vertical shaft based DRI making unit.

Based on the evaluations of the proposals received, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has sanctioned total three pilot projects in the steel sector - Matrix Gas and Renewables Ltd (Consortium members: Gensol Engineering Ltd, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Metsol AB, Sweden) with pilot plant capacity 50 ton-per-day (TPD), Simplex Castings Ltd (Consortium member: BSBK Pvt. Ltd., Ten Eight Investment, IIT Bhilai) with pilot plant capacity 40 TPD and Steel Authority of India Ltd (Ranchi) with plant capacity 3200 TPD.

The total financial support made available will be Rs.347 crore from the Central government. These pilot projects are likely to be commissioned in next three years, paving way to the scaleup of such technologies in India.

The National Green Hydrogen Mission was launched on January 4 2023 with an outlay of Rs.19,744 crore up to financial year 2029-30. It will contribute to India’s goal to become Aatmanirbhar through clean energy and serve as an inspiration for the global clean energy transition.

The mission will lead to significant decarbonization of the economy, reduced dependence on fossil fuel imports, and enable India to assume technology and market leadership in green hydrogen.