How is fossil-free steel made?
The first step in making steel is to turn iron ore into iron by removing the oxygen. This has traditionally been done using coal and coke in the blast furnace process. However, this step will now be done using hydrogen gas through the HYBRIT process. Fossil-free electricity will be used to produce hydrogen from water via electrolysis. The byproduct of this process is water, not CO2. The end result of the HYBRIT process is solid iron (sponge iron) which is then melted in an electric arc furnace. Across the entire process, only fossil-free electricity and fuels will be used – resulting in fossil-free steel as an end product.