EU Commission approves funding for the ‘tkH2Steel’ project
Published by Poppy Clements,
Assistant Editor
Global Hydrogen Review,
The European Commission has granted state aid approval for German federal and state government funding of the ‘tkH2Steel’ decarbonisation project. The funding amounts to around €2 billion.
This will take place via two interlinked funding instruments, namely ‘Initial Grant’ and ‘Conditional Payment’, thus underwriting and promoting above all the innovative plant technology and an early end to the use of natural gas. The European Commission’s state aid approval enables the German government to release the financial assistance that was applied for.
Bernhard Osburg, Chairman of the Executive Board of thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG, said: "Our project is an important contribution to achieving climate targets in Germany and Europe, and secures sustainable industrial jobs not only here, but also in related industries. In this way, we can also demonstrate internationally that progress, prosperity and climate change mitigation are not mutually exclusive. We thank the German government and the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia for their continued and determined support for the green transformation of our steel production, and their confidence in our concept. We are now counting on a prompt formal approval by the German government."
The core of the tkH2Steel concept lies in the integration of a technologically new plant combination in one of Europe's largest iron and steel plants. The 100% hydrogen-capable direct reduction (DR) plant with two melters has a production capacity of 2.5 million tpy of directly reduced iron (making for 2.3 million tpy of hot metal).
It is the first plant combination of its kind in the world to include this technological concept, and will be a pioneer for the further decarbonisation of the steel value chain. This is a significant step for industrial climate change mitigation in Europe: the annual saving will ultimately total up to 3.5 million t of carbon dioxide (CO2). The start-up is planned for the end of 2026. The plant is scheduled to operate as early as 2029 and is expected to produce around 143 000 tpy of hydrogen.
Read the article online at: https://www.globalhydrogenreview.com/hydrogen/21072023/eu-commission-approves-funding-for-the-tkh2steel-project/
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