Green Innovation Fund Project on“Hydrogen Utilization in Iron and Steelmaking Processes”

THE ROAD TO

NET ZERO
WITH GREEN STEELJapan’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 necessitates reductions in industrial carbon emissions. The country’s steel
industry is taking steps toward that goal by using hydrogen to decarbonize the steelmaking process. The aim is to lead theworld in technological innovation and the transition to “green steel” production.
Katana (Japanese swords)—
pliable enough not to break, yetstrong enough to cut neatly andsharply—are the time-honored
epitome of high-grade steel. Just

as the traditional swordsmith
meticulously works steel tocombine those contradictory
properties within a sword,
Japan’s steel industry produces
The development of blast furnace hydrogen
reduction technology is underway using
NEDO’s Green Innovation Fund (photo ofNippon Steel’s hydrogen reduction test furnace
in Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture).
© NEDO HYDROGEN UTILIZATION IN IRON AND STEELMAKINGPROCESSES PROJECT

high-performance, high-quality
steel materials fit for a variety ofapplications, supporting its global
competitiveness in industrial
products. The quality of Japanese
steel is rated very highly, with 40%
of all domestically produced steel
exported overseas, mainly to otherparts of Asia.
The steel industry in Japan is now
assiduously taking on the challengeof going carbon-free. As Japan
seeks to become carbon neutral by
2050, industrial decarbonization
has become an ever more pressing
problem. Accounting for 14%
of Japan’s carbon emissions,the domestic steel industry hastargeted a 30% reduction in total
emissions by 2030, compared witha 2013 baseline. Having alreadyachieved the world’s highest levelof energy efficiency within its

Image of Hydrogen Reduction Ironmaking

CCO2

Fe2O3

Iron ore

Fe

Reduction reaction(Carbon takes oxygenaway from iron ore)

Steelproducts

Reduction withhydrogen rather
than carbon:

Hydrogen
Reduction
Ironmaking

H2Fe2O3Iron ore

H2OFe

Reduction reaction
Steel(Hydrogen takes oxygen
productsaway from iron ore)production process, the industry
is energetically working to develop
innovative technologies in order toachieve this 2030 goal and carbon
neutrality by 2050.
One of the most advanced
initiatives now taking place isthe development of steelmaking
technology that uses hydrogen.
Japan’s steel industry developedthrough the blast furnace process,which is energy efficient andcapable of mass-producing highquality steel with few impurities.
Still, such a process uses carbon
to reduce (remove oxygen from)iron ore, the raw material, making
carbon (i.e., CO2) emissions
inevitable. However, if some of
the carbon used for the reduction
process is replaced with hydrogen,the resulting byproduct is water,
not CO2.
In 2008, Japan launched
COURSE50, a national project
supported by the New EnergyandIndustrialTechnology
Development
Organization(NEDO). The project aims toreduce carbon emissions by 30%from 2013 levels by combining
technologies that separate andrecover CO2 with technologies
that reduce CO2 emissions fromblast furnaces through injectinghydrogen generated on-site into
the blast furnace. Verification
experiments are scheduled to begin
in 2026.
Furthermore, in 2022, themajor domestic steel companiesof Nippon Steel Corporation,JFE Steel Corporation, and Kobe
Steel, Ltd. formed the Hydrogen
Steelmaking Consortium alongwith the Japan Research andCOURSE50
blast furnace

Development of hydrogen reduction
technologies utilizing hydrogen fromwithin steelworks

Super COURSE50
blast furnace

Development of low-carbon technologies
using external hydrogen and CO 2
contained in blast furnace exhaust gas

Hydrogen-based direct
reduction furnace

Development of direct hydrogen
reduction technology

Large-size electric arc
furnaces that produce
high-grade steel

Development of technology toremove impurities in electric arc
furnaces using directly reduced iron

Development
CenterforMetals. Aided by NEDO’s
Green Innovation Fund, theSuper COURSE50 project waslaunched with the goal of halving
CO2 emissions by using heatedexternal hydrogen. Last year,
the project confirmed a 33%
reduction in such emissions froma test blast furnace—the highest
reduction levels in the world todate. “We hope to establish SuperCOURSE50 commercialization
technology by 2040,” says
ORIHASHI Eiji, Managing
Executive Officer at Nippon Steel.
In addition to blast furnaces,
the Green Innovation Fundproject is developing multiplehydrogen reduction technologies
in collaboration with theconsortium. For example, directhydrogen reduction technology
uses hydrogen instead of natural
gas to reduce low-grade ironore, while electric arc furnacetechnology removes impurities
and produces high-grade steel
with low emissions. However, thekind of steelmaking process useddiffers depending on the countryas several factors come into play,such as the availability of highquality iron ore or scrap that canbe used. “Every decarbonization
process has its advantages anddisadvantages, requiring a multitrack approach. Although wehave yet to find the perfectsolution, if we develop innovativetechnologies, they will eventually
become widespread around theworld, leading to a reduction in
global CO2 emissions. I believethat this is where our technologicalcapabilities can be applied,” asserts
Nippon Steel’s Orihashi.
Abundant in terms of resource
availability and easy to recycle,
steel is a remarkable material andsupports every aspect of our lives,
from infrastructure and cars toelectrical appliances. To make thesteel industry sustainable, Japan
will work with the public andprivate sectors to pave the way
toward producing “green steel.”

“I believe that the decarbonization of the steel
industry needs to be tackled as a mission shared by
all of Japan,” says ORIHASHI Eiji of Nippon Steel.