[Ferro-Alloys.com] A startup called H2 Green Steel (H2GS AB) unveiled plans here on Tuesday to build a large-scale "green" steel production plant in the Boden-Lulea region in northern Sweden.

The company's fossil-free production process uses hydrogen rather than coking coal. The project is seen as necessary for Sweden to meet its 2045 deadline for carbon neutrality.

H2GS and the municipality of Boden, some 1,000 kilometers north of the capital Stockholm, have drawn up a letter of intent for the acquisition of a 500-hectare land area where the plant is to be built.

The goal is to commence production in 2024 and reach an annual production of five million tonnes of steel by 2030. The project is estimated to create around 1,500 new jobs in Boden.

"Through the investment in fossil-free green steel, we can create a more sustainable society and contribute to the development of our region," Municipal Councilor Claes Nordmark said in a press release.

"We will now accumulate forces with the expertise that already exists in the local area so that we, together with Lulea, can be involved and contribute to revolutionizing Swedish steel production," he said referring to a similar hydrogen-based pilot plant in the nearby city.

Thanks to already existing hydropower infrastructure and to the numerous wind parks currently being built in northern Sweden, the hydrogen to be used at the Boden plant -- claimed to be one of the largest such plants in Europe -- will be fossil-free.

"We share the vision to develop the Norrbotten region into a world-leading knowledge cluster in fossil-free steel production," said Carl-Erik Lagercrantz, chairman of the Board of H2GS AB.

According to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the country's industries generated more than 16 million tonnes of carbon emissions in 2019, of which more than a third came from the production of steel and iron. 

Source: Xinhua

• [Editor:kangmingfei]