A plant in Luleå will produce fossil-free steel

For the transition to this fossil-free production at SSAB's plants in Luleå and Oxelösund, 15 Terawatt hours of renewable electricity will be needed, which corresponds to about ten percent of Sweden's total electricity consumption.

If the tests prove successful, the world's first fossil-free steel production plant will be built, and production is expected to start in 2035.

Coke is currently used to convert iron ore into iron and steel, but the new process means that the coke is replaced with hydrogen to be produced with fossil-free energy. SSAB emits about ten percent of Sweden's total carbon dioxide emissions, so this technology would be of great importance for Sweden to be able to achieve its climate goal of becoming completely carbon dioxide neutral.

One challenge with the technology shift is that the new production form requires large amounts of electricity. According to Mikael Nordlander at Vattenfall, it is about 15 Twh per year, which is more than what the large wind farm in the Markbygden, fully developed can produce.

Anna Krook-Riekkola at LTU is researching how Sweden should cope with the energy transition.

- It is a challenge, but there is a lot of development and research and, for example, solar and wind power are increasing and improving all the time so I feel confident that we will succeed.

Mikael Nordlander says it is not about the supply of electricity per se.

- Today we export electricity and wind power will be expanded and can replace what we lose when nuclear power plants are closed, but the challenge is to get electricity when we need it. Therefore, hydrogen storage is included as part of the project.

The project wants to test storing hydrogen gas in Svartöberget. Neither that nor where the final storage space should stand is not decided.