Modi Govt sanctions three ‘steel from green hydrogen’ pilot projects; offers ₹347 cr support

In quest to expedite sustainable development and check on the carbon emission, the Modi Government has sanctioned three pilot projects for use of Hydrogen in steel production under National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM). Earlier the MNRE Ministry had issued guidelines for Implementation of Pilot projects in ‘Steel Sector’ under this Mission.

As per the official statement released by MNRE Ministry, three pilot projects in the steel sector have been sanctioned based on the evaluations of the proposals received. One project is sanctioned to Matrix Gas and Renewables Ltd (Consortium members: Gensol Engineering Ltd, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Metsol AB, Sweden) with pilot plant capacity 50 ton-per-day (TPD). The other project is sanctioned to Simplex Castings Ltd (Consortium member: BSBK Pvt. Ltd., Ten Eight Investment, IIT Bhilai) with pilot plant capacity 40 TPD. The third one being given to Steel Authority of India Ltd (Ranchi) having a plant capacity 3200 TPD.

The total financial support made available will be Rs. 347 Crore from the Government of India. These pilot projects are likely to be commissioned in next 3 years, paving way to the scaleup of such technologies in India.

The MNRE ministry said that objectives of the scheme are to identify advance technologies for utilizing green hydrogen in steelmaking, through pilot projects. These pilot projects can demonstrate safe and secure operations of green hydrogen-based steel making processes, validating technical feasibility and performance, evaluating their economic viability thereby leading to low-carbon iron and steel production.

Accordingly, the proposals were invited for three components (i) Pilot project to produce DRI using 100 % Hydrogen using vertical shaft, (ii) Use of Hydrogen in Blast Furnace to reduce coal/ coke consumption and (iii) Injection of Hydrogen in vertical shaft based DRI making unit.