Producing high-strength steel virtually without fossil carbon emissions

Global warming is caused in part by carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. The steel industry is responsible for a significant percentage of those carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, steel mills are transforming to become carbon-free. SSAB aims to be the first to market fossil-free steel using the revolutionary HYBRIT® technology, which replaces coal with hydrogen in steel production. SSAB ZeroTM , made from recycled steel and produced with fossil-free electricity and biogas, is already available, and in the future we aim for completely fossil-free production at our Swedish and Finnish mills.

For thousands of years, steel has been made using coal to remove oxygen from iron ore. This causes the emission of huge amounts of CO2, which has a huge impact on the environment. In addition, as the world's population grows, new infrastructure must be built. This means the creation of new homes, offices, industrial buildings, etc., resulting in an increased demand for steel. 

"Steel is the most circular material in the world. More than 600 million tons of material is recycled every year. However, to meet the demand, there is not enough scrap available. Currently, 25 % of steel is produced with recycled material, which means we still need to produce 75 % of new steel. By 2050, we should be at 50% of recycled and 50% of new steel, taking into account that the amount of steel demanded will also increase significantly," says Jan Meier, sales director at SSAB. "Europe is very committed to reducing the carbon footprint in every industry, with the goal of reaching zero emissions by 2050. The revisions have become much stricter and free CO2 emission allowances will be phased out by 2034. With the introduction of CBAM, steel imported from outside Europe will be subject to CO2 emission charges. The challenge for the steel industry is to decarbonize."

SSAB has long taken responsibility and is now setting targets to further reduce the carbon footprint of its facilities in Sweden and Finland. Moreover, there is increasing customer demand for sustainable steel. "Since 2016, a lot of research has been done on solutions to produce steel with lower CO2 emissions. Investments were made in the development of the completely new, revolutionary HYBRIT® technology, developed by SSAB, Europe's largest iron ore producer LKAB and Vattenfall, one of Europe's largest energy companies. It uses hydrogen in the production process instead of fossil fuels, such as coal. This process is based on biogas and fossil-free electricity, which makes hydrogen from water using an electrolyser," explains the sale director. "In 2020, we opened a HYBRIT® pilot plant in Luleå, Sweden, with two electrolyzers. A year later, we were the first company in the world to supply fossil-free steel: SSAB Fossil-free^TM steel. We also launched another new product, SSAB Zero^TM , made from recycled steel and produced with fossil-free electricity and biogas, resulting in steel that produces virtually no fossil carbon emissions in scope 1 and 2. Today, the volume of steel coming out of our plant is still limited and this is used almost entirely for further testing and for our 'Fossil-free partners', who can thus make their first products in fossil-free steel. We are confident that by 2026 we will significantly increase the supply of SSAB fossil-free steel, and it is our goal to achieve fossil-free steel production at all our Swedish and Finnish mills around the year 2030."

SSAB is committed to eliminating CO2 emissions and switching completely to fossil-free steel technology. However, they are not the only "believers," as many customers in different markets are interested in using fossil-free steel for their products. Automotive OEM companies as well as construction companies and renewable energy manufacturers around the world are looking for partners who can offer them low-carbon steel. "We will be ready to meet their demand. That is why we are building a new furnace in Oxelösund, Sweden, which will open in 2026. This will allow us to close existing facilities that produce steel based on fossil fuels. By the end of 2028, we will also completely transform our production facility in Luleå to fossil-free steel production and also build a new state-of-the-art hot strip mill there. The transformation will be complete when the site in Raahe, Finland, is also fully converted to fossil-free production. Then SSAB will be completely transformed and ready for the future. Other steel companies are also now working on solutions to reduce their CO2 emissions, and there are even start-ups that immediately opt for low CO2 steel production."