‘Green steel’ is still decades away in Asia as hydrogen struggles to replace coal-fired furnaces, says mining giant BHP

The youth of the region’s blast furnace steel plants makes it difficult to justify the costs of converting to hydrogen-enabled facilities

Steel contributed 15 per cent of China’s carbon dioxide emissions, the second-highest proportion after the power generation sector

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Environmentally-friendly steel on a commercial scale in Asia is still decades away, according to Australian mining giant BHP. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:30am, 1 Dec 2022Updated: 2:05pm, 1 Dec 2022

Environmentally-friendly steel on a commercial scale in Asia is still decades away as the use of hydrogen to replace coal-fired furnaces in production is a long way from being commercially viable, according to Australian mining giant BHP.

The relative youth of the region’s fleet of traditional blast furnace steel plants – averaging 12 years in China and 18 years in India – means it would be difficult to justify the costs of converting them to hydrogen-enabled “direct reduced iron” (DRI) facilities, said chief development officer Johan van Jaarsveld.

“The adoption of hydrogen in steel making – the replacement of blast furnace iron with direct reduced iron – is something possible in the future,” he said. “However, we don’t think that is something that is going to happen in material quantities in this part of the world for another few decades. The reason is just costs.”