Salzgitter starts wind power-driven hydrogen production

Following the commissioning of the “Wind Hydrogen Salzgitter – WindH2” project, Salzgitter AG has started to make green hydrogen with electricity generated by wind power on the site of its Salzgitter strip mill.

The newly built facilities were presented to the public on Thursday, with political representatives and other industry members attending, The cost of the entire project, which has been carried out in partnership with Avacon and Linde, amounts to around €50 million ($60m), Kallanish learns.

Avacon, a member of the E.on Group, operates seven newly built wind turbines with an output totalling 30MW on the premises of the mill. It has installed two Siemens 1.25MW PEM electrolyser units at its site, which are capable of producing around 450 cubic metres per hour of ultra-pure hydrogen.

Today’s steel production already harnesses hydrogen for annealing processes as well as in the hot-dip galvanizing lines. Industrial gas producer Linde is currently delivering hydrogen by truck for use in the annealing and galvanizing processes, and will continue to secure coverage of hydrogen. A test run is currently being made at all the facilities.

Christian Koehl Germany