European venture capital investor Demeter has invested in decarbonized steel startup H2 Green Steel. The company’s blueprints include a Boden, Sweden-based green steel plant which, in comparison to the conventional blast furnace technology, has the potential to reduce emissions by 95%.
The Swedish company therefore decided to boost green steel production as a first step, keeping in mind that Swedish steel production is based on scrap feedstock today and charging more than 99% utilizing renewable power, providing the lowest carbon steel in the world at competitive cost around 2021.
Arguably the most challenging sector to decarbonize is steel, which contributes 7 to 9 percent of global emissions that are attributable to burning fossil fuels.
H2 Green Steel has previously formed an agreement with Bodens lkemaskin, a manufacturer of iron and steel plant machinery and supplies founded in 1873, and the goal is to deliver the efficient and cost-effective manufacturing plant to produce annual 5 million tons exactly of green SSAB steel by 2030.
Specifically, H2 Green Steel has proposed building its own industrial-scale, low-carbon steel plant in Norrbotten, northern Sweden. Closing is subject to customary conditions. The hydrogen produced in this plant will be converted to ammonia.
H2 Green Steel was founded in 2020 to replace fossil-based steelmaking and deliver the sustainable manufacturing at a planetary scale needed for a rapid and effective transition to low carbon. The company focuses on decarbonizing the steel industry and building one of the world’s first clean steel plants.
In late 2020 the company signed a joint venture with state owned utility Vattenfall to build a Proof of Concept facility and in 2021, H2 Green Steel divested its industrial-scale steel production to the JV.
H2 Green Steel says that the two main joint venture owners and its own management team have 100% the same goals and ambitions to produce same cost competitive H2 green steel of globally highest electricity share or indeed 100% renewable power in the stock exchange towards the end of 2021.
The company was officially founded in 2020 by Martin Pei together with a group of experienced entrepreneurs and industrial magnates. S4 Capital is also pursuing an agreement to merge with H2 Green Steel AS in the form of a “stock for stock” transaction, as part of the HY24 framework.
A new player wanting to produce a lot of low carbon steel will have the possibility to either build a new plant or convert an existing plant which either is now when using scrap and is electric or not using scrap but this is limited as almost all the electrically driven plants today have other clients which through contracts demand that the scrap is destroyed.
