US-based mining company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has announced that it has completed a hydrogen injection trial at its blast furnace No. 7 at its Indiana Harbor plant. This is the company’s second blast furnace to utilize hydrogen as a reductant and fuel source, following the previous successful trial at the Middletown Works blast furnace in May 2023.
The company used the hydrogen pipeline at Indiana Harbor, which was commissioned recently, for the trial. “The blast furnace No. 7 at its Indiana Harbor plant is the largest blast furnace in North America and we are proud of our ability to be ahead of the curve in using this cutting-edge technology to decarbonize, while maintaining both our efficiency and the high standard of quality that comes with steel produced via the blast furnace route,” Lourenco Goncalves, CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, said.