A consortium led by the India-based Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT) has expressed interest in piloting India’s first green steelmaking initiative using a 100 percent hydrogen-based DRI production method, Indian government sources said on Tuesday, July 16.
The sources said that the consortium will be partly supported by the steel ministry.
In industrial-scale hydrogen-based iron-making, also known as direct reduction of iron (DRI) using hydrogen, the oxygen is removed from the iron ore. But instead of using high carbon-emitting fossil fuels, it is done using hydrogen with the waste gas being water. The DRI so produced, also called sponge iron, is then fed into an electric arc furnace where electrodes generate a current to use it to produce steel.
Earlier in June, India’s steel ministry had floated tenders under the National Green Hydrogen Mission with an outlay of $55 million, seeking participation from industry to pilot green steel making, that is steel made where carbon emissions or carbon content is substantially lower. The pilots will use hydrogen as an alternative to conventional coking coal, the sources said.
So far, a consortium-based pilot for a H2-based DRI facility has received a bid. IMMT, a government agency under the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), along with some other stakeholders have submitted bids now under consideration for funding, they said.
The last date for submission of bids was July 12 and only one bid has been received under the funding plan, the sources said.