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Green hydrogen used to produce green steel in a first for MENA

January 14, 2025

A pilot project touted to be a first for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, has successfully produced green steel using green hydrogen instead of natural gas.

The initiative is a collaboration between EMSTEEL, the UAE’s largest publicly listed steel and building materials company and Masdar, the UAE’s major renewable energy developer.

The companies said green hydrogen has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions in steel-making by up to 95%

Producing green steel through green hydrogen

“The Abu Dhabi-based project, the first-of-its-kind in the Middle East and North African region, uses green hydrogen to extract iron from iron ore, a key step in steelmaking.

“The pilot project is now fully operational and has successfully commenced the production of green steel.”

The renewable hydrogen produced by the project has been certified by Avance Labs, the hydrogen code manager accredited by the International Tracking Standard Foundation, in accordance with the recently released ISO 19870 methodology for hydrogen.

The certification data was validated by Bureau Veritas, acting as the third-party assurance provider.

“Steel production is a very important industry in the UAE; however it is carbon-intensive and hard to abate. Globally, the sector contributes between seven and eight percent of worldwide carbon emissions. Decarbonising this industry is therefore essential to propelling the world towards a net-zero future.

“Rising global demand for green steel presents huge growth potential for the UAE, as the country aspires to be a major green steel production hub. The use of sustainable building materials, including steel, is being promoted through the National Green Certificates Programme, launched by the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure in July,” the companies said.

Decarbonisation efforts fuelled by green hydrogen

They said the partnership has demonstrated the potential for green hydrogen to decarbonise the global steel value chain.

Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi, EMSTEEL Group CEO, said: “We are committed to propelling decarbonisation efforts in the sector, in support of the UAE’s Net Zero by 2050 Strategy. Our efforts to-date have been fruitful, with our current utilisation of clean energy rising above 80% in 2023.”

Masdar CEO Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, said green hydrogen is a vital element in global decarbonisation efforts.

“Even with all the renewables in the world, we cannot meet the decarbonisation objectives for hard-to-abate sectors such as steel production.”

The pilot project aligns with Abu Dhabi’s Low Carbon Hydrogen Policy, which promotes low-carbon hydrogen as a future clean energy source.

It complements the UAE National Hydrogen Strategy, which seeks to establish the UAE as a leading global producer of low carbon hydrogen by 2031.

Image: Masdar and EMSTEEL representatives tat he launch of MENA’s first green hydrogen-based steel project.
Source: Masdar

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