Metalloinvest continues to work actively to reduce the carbon footprint of its products, said Yuri Gavrilov, Director of Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions at the session “Hydrogen Energy Technologies: Challenges and Opportunities” as part of the international forum “Russian Energy Week”.
The company is discussing the supply of equipment and technologies from friendly countries, and is increasing its own scientific and technical potential.
Metalloinvest is developing technologies for the production and use of low-carbon hydrogen together with leading Russian industrial companies and scientific organizations.
The company is also exploring the possibility of introducing carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage technologies.
“In the short and medium term, the greatest importance for the decarbonization of Russian metallurgical enterprises will be the capture, storage and utilization of greenhouse gas emissions,” said Yuri Gavrilov. “The introduction of hydrogen technologies has a more distant prospect due to the high cost of hydrogen production and technological limitations.”
The application of hydrogen technologies is most promising in such areas as energy accumulation, storage and transportation; direct reduction of metals using hydrogen as a reducing agent instead of coal and natural gas; production of fuel cells for technological transport, said Yuri Gavrilov.
Currently, Metalloinvest can use up to 55% of “grey” hydrogen obtained by converting methane in a mixture of reducing gases in the production of hot briquetted and direct reduced iron (HBI/DRI).
The HBI and DRI production units at Lebedinsky and Mikhailovsky GOKs have the potential to increase the share of “green” (obtained by electrolysis of water using renewable electricity) hydrogen to 30% in the medium term.
Metalloinvest’s Climate Strategy, effective since 2021, envisages a transition to the use of up to 100% “green” hydrogen after 2030, which will reduce CO2 emissions from HBI/DRI production to almost zero.
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Metalloinvest is a leading mining and metallurgical company, the world leader in proven iron ore reserves according to JORC (15.4 billion tons, about 150 years of operation at the current level of production). The company is the world’s largest producer and supplier of commercial hot briquetted iron (HBI) – a low-carbon raw material for the production of “green” steel; it occupies a leading position in the production of iron ore concentrate, pellets and high-quality steel.