A Swedish consortium thinks it’s cracked a way to make fossil fuel free steel.
HYBRIT has just delivered a game-changing pilot project in Luleå, Sweden, which successfully shows fossil-free hydrogen can be stored on a large scale—paving the way for a cleaner, more flexible energy system.
The project, backed by SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall, designed and tested a 100m³ hydrogen storage facility using steel-lined rock cavern (LRC) technology. Results show that the system not only works but could slash variable operating costs by up to 40%.
“The pilot project has been highly successful and has given us the results we hoped for,” said Mikael Nordlander, Director of industry decarbonisation at Vattenfall. “We have shown that it is possible to use this technology to increase the flexibility of the electricity system and that it is a safe design that lasts over time.”
By storing hydrogen when electricity prices are low and using it when prices spike, HYBRIT’s storage technology could make fossil-free steel production economically competitive.
With global steel production responsible for 7% of carbon emissions, this innovation has the potential to significantly cut pollution.
“The results from the HYBRIT pilot project show that large-scale storage of fossil-free hydrogen is technically possible and economically beneficial,” said Martin Pei, CTO at SSAB.
With the technology now ready for industrialisation, HYBRIT is extending its pilot until 2026 to refine the design for commercial-scale storage—marking another step toward fossil-free steel.
