HYBRIT has now tested its hydrogen storage system in Luleå, Sweden, for the first time under commercial conditions on the electricity market. The result: storage could reduce the variable costs of hydrogen for the steel industry by 25 to 40%.
HYBRIT is an initiative launched jointly in 2016 by the Swedish steel group SSAB, the Luleå-based iron ore producer LKAB and the electricity supplier Vattenfall. As part of the test, the storage facility was directly integrated into the electricity market for about a month.
The goal was to produce hydrogen from fossil-free electricity with a variable electricity price at the lowest possible cost, e.g. at certain times of the day or during longer periods of high electricity demand due to weather conditions. In the process, SSAB’s direct-reduction plant received a steady and reliable supply of hydrogen, according to the testers, and saved 25 to 40 % in hydrogen production costs by using the storage facility.
“These results are as exciting as they are important, because hydrogen from fossil-free electricity is at the heart of the industry’s transformation. In an electricity system with fluctuating supply and variable prices, large-scale hydrogen storage makes it possible to flex consumption while providing industry with a more reliable and cost-effective supply of hydrogen.
Used on a large scale, hydrogen storage can have a dampening effect on electricity price fluctuations. This, in turn, would encourage investment in new power generation from all fossil-free energy sources,” explains Mikael Nordlander, who heads industrial partnerships at Vattenfall.
Hydrogen capacity for 3 to 4 days of a large steel mill
The storage facility is a 100-cubic-meter pilot plant located 30 meters underground. Hydrogen gas compressed at up to 250 bar is stored there. Fully utilized, the facility is said to have a capacity of potentially 100,000 to 120,000 m³ of hydrogen gas. That is roughly enough to supply a large steel mill for three to four days.
The green hydrogen will be produced in the HYBRIT pilot by water electrolysis using fossil-free electricity. Owners Vattenfall, SSAB and LKAB have invested (in equal parts) SEK 200 million – about €17.3 million – and the Swedish Energy Agency has supported the project with just over €4.5 million through the Industriklivet program. Together, the partners intend to pursue the development of the entire value chain in fossil-free style.
Stefan Savonen, who is responsible for energy and climate at LKAB, notes, “LKAB will completely switch the production of iron ore products to fossil-free sponge iron produced with hydrogen, so these are very important results for us.
To do that, we need more than a million tons of hydrogen, and our consumption – when our operations are fully transformed in 2050 – will be more than 70 TWh of fossil-free electricity per year. Something must therefore be done about the costs.”
