STEELMAKING giant ArcelorMittal has installed a green hydrogen combustion system to fuel the rolling mill at its Olaberria plant in Spain.

Rolling mills require high temperatures to heat steel blooms, billets or slabs before shaping them into flat products. The previous natural-gas-fired reheating furnaces at Olaberria have been replaced with units that combust 100% green hydrogen oxyfuel. The system was designed, manufactured and installed by Spanish company Sarralle in collaboration with Nippon Gases.

Hydrogen is widely promoted as a route to low-carbon steelmaking, although its most significant benefit would be as a reductant for direct reduced iron (DRI) to make green virgin iron. ArcelorMittal’s fuel switch at Olaberria comes months after the company rejected €1.3bn (US$1.5bn) in public subsidies to convert two German blast furnace sites to hydrogen-based DRI, citing the country’s high energy costs.