Morocco and the Netherlands cooperate to supply green hydrogen to Europe
Morocco and the Netherlands plan to deliver renewable hydrogen produced in Morocco to steel and heavy industry facilities in the Netherlands through the “Green Hydrogen Bridge” project. This initiative is expected to play a key role in enabling the steel sector’s transition to low-carbon production, contributing to Europe’s 2050 carbon neutrality targets.
Tomas Olejniczak, Project Lead for Climate and Energy in the Netherlands, stated, “By 2050, we will need between 300 and 500 petajoules of renewable hydrogen. Hydrogen will replace coal in the steel and chemical sectors and help reduce industrial carbon emissions.”
Morocco, with its abundant solar and wind resources, can provide low-cost renewable energy, making it a reliable supplier for the Dutch steel industry. Its geographic proximity and short maritime routes reduce transport costs, positioning Morocco as a natural green hydrogen hub for Northwest Europe. Morocco’s largest investment, the Jorf Hydrogen Platform, backed by a €30 million grant from Germany’s KfW PtX Fund, will start producing 100,000 tons of green ammonia annually in 2026, supplying hydrogen for steel production.
Rotterdam Port is preparing the necessary infrastructure for importing hydrogen and its derivatives. The port facilities will be integrated with the Hydrogen Network Netherlands and the Delta-Rhine Corridor to ensure continuous supply to industrial clusters in the Netherlands and Germany. In the short term, ammonia and methanol shipping will be used, while pipeline connections are planned for longer-term cost reduction. Joint R&D and certification processes will ensure the hydrogen supply is traceable and sustainable.
The Netherlands’ projected hydrogen demand by 2050 offers new investment opportunities for Moroccan producers. The partnership will help reduce carbon emissions in Europe’s steel sector and allow Morocco to scale up its green hydrogen capacity globally.
Global hydrogen investment to jump 70% in 2025 despite project delays
Global investment in clean hydrogen technologies is set to surge by 70% in 2025 to almost $8 billion despite a wave of high-profile project cancellations, as governments maintain policy support and developers push ahead with projects that have reached final investment decision, the International Energy Agency said June 5.
Hydrogen investment rose by 60% in 2024, despite significant headwinds and delays, and developing all projects that have reached FID would require a further major boost in spending, the IEA said in its World Energy Investment 2025 report.
“Successfully developing all hydrogen projects that have received FID would require investment to rise by a further 70% in 2025 to almost $8 billion,” it said.
This would increase capacity to around 7.5 million mt/year by 2035, representing a near 15-fold increase on current levels.
The hydrogen sector experienced a significant consolidation in 2024, with electrolyzer investment jumping 90% to $2.5 billion even as several major projects were cancelled or delayed.
“Some hydrogen projects have been cancelled or delayed in the past 12 months, but there remains a pipeline of approved projects that requires around $8 billion of investment in 2025, almost double the level seen in 2024,” the IEA said.
The investment in low-emissions hydrogen is part of a broader 30% increase in spending on liquid biofuels, biogases and low-carbon hydrogen to a record high of almost $25 billion.
Sector headwinds
Major setbacks included Air Products’ exit from a 13,000 mt/year electrolyzer project and the pause on development of a 600,000 mt/year complex in Louisiana until offtake agreements can be secured, despite the project reaching FID in 2023.
Orsted’s cancellation of its 50,000 mt/year FlagshipONE e-methanol project in Sweden that was in construction, two years after reaching FID, also highlighted the challenges facing the sector.
However, construction activity is accelerating on approved projects, and electrolyzer investment is set to rise by 150% in 2025, according to the IEA.
This growth reflects both the scaling up of manufacturing capacity and the construction phase of projects that secured financing in previous years.
“An increasing number of electrolyzer projects are under construction, including a project in Kakinada, India, that reached FID in mid-2024 and is set to produce 1 million mt/year of low-emissions ammonia by 2026, largely for export to Europe,” the IEA said.
Around one-third of investment in carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS)-based hydrogen is concentrated in North America, though some planned projects in the region have recently been cancelled.
Government backing remains crucial for sector development, with policy support continuing globally in 2025.
The report notes that hydrogen projects “remain heavily dependent on policy and regulatory support,” given current cost structures.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the cost of renewable hydrogen production via alkaline electrolysis in the Netherlands, backed by renewable power purchase agreements, at Eur7.77/kg ($8.80/kg) on June 5, compared with Eur2.72/kg for unabated fossil fuel-based production.
Low-emissions steel
The IEA flagged steel production as a key area where hydrogen technology is being deployed to decarbonize industry, but highlighted declining investment in the sector.
Steel producers are switching to electric arc furnaces and hydrogen-fed direct reduction iron plants, though these plans are progressing more slowly than previously expected.
“Projections for the coming years indicate a significant decline in the volume of low-emissions steel capacity expected to come online, with around $9 billion worth of projects scheduled to become operational in 2026, a drop of over 60% from the previous year,” the IEA said. “This points to a substantial preceding underinvestment in these technologies, reversing the upward trend observed until now.”
Europe, though, was an exception.
“While global investment in hydrogen-based steelmaking dropped nearly threefold in 2024, Europe continues to dominate, accounting for more than 70% of new investment in this area,” the IEA said. “Overall, Europe invested nearly $15 billion in clean industrial technologies in 2024, with 80% of this funding directed towards steel decarbonization projects.”
The IEA noted that these technologies, and hydrogen-based steel production in particular, were still in their early stages and expensive to implement.
The EU has implemented several supportive measures as a result, including tightening carbon pricing, phasing out free allowances by 2026 and the carbon border adjustment mechanism.
Tubos Reunidos develops hydrogen distribution pipe
Spanish seamless tube supplier Tubos Reunidos (TR) is developing pipe capable of transporting hydrogen. As part of its participation in the H2Bidea project, the company aims to support the expansion of green hydrogen valleys and industrial decarbonisation in Spain, Kallanish notes.
“We are constantly improving our processes and products to make them more sustainable,” explains TR R&D director Jon Bikandi. “The Group is developing carbon steel piping capable of distributing 100% hydrogen at up to 160 bar, which currently does not exist. This proves that we can reduce our carbon footprint while also driving industrial decarbonisation and building a green value chain for businesses.”
The project is being led by a Basque consortium including Nortegas, Tubos Reunidos, Arizaga, Bastarrica y Compañía (ABC Compressors), Orkli, Comercial de Aplicaciones Electrónicas (Fidegas), and Calcinor Servicios.
Supported by the Basque government’s Hazitek R&D programme and the European Union, the project aims to be completed by 2027, culminating in the H2TESTLAB distribution network demonstration, a dynamic circuit designed to assess damage tolerance in hydrogen-compatible components.
Todor Kirkov Bulgaria
Hydrogen should be prioritised for steel production: OECD
Hydrogen should be prioritised for steel sector decarbonisation over other possible applications, the OECD says in a new report seen by Kallanish.
It notes that steel needs to compete with other industries in securing limited hydrogen resources, despite the gas being used in the steelmaking process being considered a high value application.
The report says that given its significant potential to reduce emissions by up to 90% in the steel industry compared to other sectors, its use in the steel sector is considered important. It therefore calls for the prioritising of green hydrogen supplies to the industry.
Current hydrogen production is limited, mostly based on fossil fuels, and mostly feeding production processes in other sectors. Renewable or green hydrogen is only available in very limited quantities.
Recent OECD estimates expect excess capacity to reach 630 million tonnes by 2026. This corresponds roughly to the amount of hydrogen-based steelmaking capacity that needs to come online to achieve net-zero goals by 2050 in the most ambitious decarbonisation scenarios for hydrogen-based steelmaking developments.
OECD figures show that a total of 164mt of direct reduced iron capacity is in the planning and construction phase until 2030, of which only 15mt (9.2%) is based on hydrogen. The vast majority is based on natural gas DRI, with some gradually switching to hydrogen as it becomes available for steelmaking.
The range of estimates for carbon neutral steelmaking by 2050 assign a prominent role for hydrogen-based DRI solutions. These range between 370-873mt, corresponding to 20-40% of the estimates for total production in 2050. With subdued global demand projections, the build-up of these capacities needs to be accompanied by the exit of emission-intensive facilities to avoid furthering excess capacity.
The organisation also notes the importance of hydrogen-based projects being located where they make most sense from a market perspective and in regions that are not plagued by excess capacity. The opportunity to use hydrogen in steelmaking should be balanced against other possible decarbonisation routes for the sector, it adds.
While hydrogen-based steelmaking currently faces significant cost and competitiveness challenges, these will likely subside in the future as the technology matures. Cost constraints of green hydrogen should also reduce as access to renewable energy improves and electrolyser costs diminish, it says.
Steelmakers may adopt gradual phase-in strategies to keep up with the pace of developments in green hydrogen markets. It also notes the role governments are playing in bringing hydrogen to the market, with many highlighting the role the fuel will play for the steel sector in their national hydrogen strategies.
It also warns that while the majority of DRI projects are built under the premise of using natural gas as a transition fuel, it is key that support provided is conditional upon the adoption of green hydrogen at a certain stage to ensure that carbon is not locked in.
Carrie Bone UK
US company produces clean hydrogen using steel off-gases
Texas-based Utility Global says onsite hydrogen production using industrial off-gases is a commercially viable solution for steelmakers, Kallanish reports.
The company has claimed an industry milestone with the successful implementation of a system that can produce clean hydrogen from water without the need for electricity. Its so-called H2Gen system has produced, for the first time in the world, hydrogen using gas from a blast furnace.
Hydrogen is expected to play a promising role in the decarbonisation of steelmaking. However, its high production costs and bottlenecks around renewable energy supply are becoming impending hurdles to its application.
“Our successful deployment of H2Gen at a major steel plant [in North America] proves we can deliver scalable, economic, clean hydrogen solutions that seamlessly integrate with existing infrastructure and assets,” Utility ceo Parker Meeks states. “H2Gen is the only commercially viable solution for producing clean hydrogen in hard-to-abate industries like steelmaking.”
Pilot plant testing for H2Gen started in 2022 in Houston, delivering 99% pure hydrogen with a 99.7% operational uptime. The commercial-scale demonstration at the steel plant ran for over 3,000 hours, but details on hydrogen purity and production capacity were not disclosed.
According to Utility’s website, its technology combines electrochemical and chemical processes based on a solid oxide-based system. Its gas production is based on two streams, which are separated by an impermeable electrolyte, and counter-exchange of oxygen ions and electrons. One stream undergoes reduction whilst the other undergoes oxidation. Electrons flow from the anode to the cathode, forming hydrogen at the cathode, the company explains.
“Unlike traditional fuel cells or electrolysers, no current is extracted or delivered to the reactor to drive the process,” it adds, noting an immediate economic benefit. Further cost reductions come from its scalability, relatively small size, and simplicity – without the need for additional infrastructure.
Salzgitter lays cornerstone for green hydrogen plant
Salzgitter has laid the cornerstone for what it says is one of the largest production plants for green hydrogen in Europe, Kallanish notes.
Starting from 2026, the plant will generate around 9,000 tonnes/year of green hydrogen to be used for the production of carbon-reduced steel. This will mark the start of the industrial use of hydrogen in the company’s SALCOS – Salzgitter Low CO2 Steelmaking – project. The 100 MW electrolysis plant will be supplied by Andritz.
A contract between the two companies was signed in September 2023 (see Kallanish September 2023). The engineering involves partner company HydrogenPro. The partner’s pressurised electrolyser stacks are particularly suited for large-scale industrial application, according to Andritz executive Domenico Iacovelli.
Separately, the steelmaker announces its plate-making subsidiary Ilsenburger Grobblech has signed a contract with wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa for the delivery of around 25,000t of heavy plate.
These will be used for the construction of 36 wind towers of Siemens Gamesa’s “GreenerTower” type. The special feature of this tower is its CO2eq emissions of less than 700 kg per tonne of steel, Salzgitter notes.
The CO2eq-reduced tower has been part of Siemens Gamesa’s product portfolio since 2024. The first use of the towers will be in the “Thor” offshore wind farm in the Danish North Sea. This is planned to be completed by the end of 2027 and have a capacity of more than 1,000 MW.
Christian Koehl Germany
Tenova, DMV to recover flared hydrogen in pipemaking
Tenova has established a consortium with DMV, along with other companies, to execute a project aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of the bright annealing process in stainless steel seamless and nickel alloy tube production.
DMV was previously known as Mannesmann Stainless Tubes and is now part of Cogne.
The so-called LIFE H2Reuse project, funded by the EU, focuses on decarbonisation via the recovery and reuse of hydrogen. Tenova initiated the project this summer, aiming to improve energy efficiency while also enhancing the efficiency of hydrogen burners, optimising resource utilisation, and decreasing operating expenses.
“This groundbreaking initiative seeks to develop innovative solutions for hydrogen recovery and reuse … In the bright annealing process, 100% hydrogen is used in high-temperature furnaces to produce high-performance tubes with superior surface quality, corrosion resistance, and durability,” Tenova says in note sent to Kallanish.
“Currently, hydrogen is flared after each production cycle, leading to significant waste. The Life H2Reuse project aims to address this issue by developing two innovative technical solutions: recovering the wasted hydrogen from the annealing process and reusing it as fuel in radiant tubes working 100% of hydrogen. This approach represents a market-first innovation, as the recovery of atmospheric gas for reuse in industrial processes is not yet commercially available,” the technology supplier adds.
Tenova will test the project on its roller hearth furnace plants to reduce their carbon footprint.
In July, pipemaker Tenaris started decarbonising its steelmaking process using hydrogen and launched a trial at its Dalmine mill in Bergamo, Italy. This was the result of a six-month partnership with Snam and Tenova. The company’s objective is to use on-site hydrogen production to power a newly developed burner by Tenova, which is fully compatible with 100% hydrogen.
Natalia Capra France
ArcelorMittal Poland to build hydrogen plant to power steel sheet galvanizing lines
ArcelorMittal Poland has contracted Linde Gaz Polska to build a hydrogen production plant at its Krakow branch to supply process gas to two galvanizing lines, the steel company said.
The PLN 100 million ($24 million) investment has already started with design work underway. The plant will be producing hydrogen from natural gas with the startup planned for the end of 2026.
“The project with Linde is [meant] to ensure a reliable supply of hydrogen for our sheet galvanizing operations,” the director of the Krakow branch, Lukasz Skorupa, said in the company’s statement.
Separately, ArcelorMittal Poland is building several hydrogen furnaces that will make it possible to eliminate ammonia in the annealing plant boosting its safety, Skorupa said.
ArcelorMittal Poland has not used coal as a fuel since 2018, and it terminated coke production in July 2024. Its installations — the hot rolling mill and the cold rolling mill, the galvanizing and color-coating lines — now operate exclusively on natural gas, according to Skorupa.
“We are constantly improving the quality of our products, expanding their range, and at the same time gradually reducing our impact on the environment,” ArcelorMittal Poland CEO Wojciech Koszuta said.
“In our processes, we replace technologies with those that have a lower impact on the environment. Hence the elimination of ammonia and the transition to hydrogen.”
Ontras, H2 Energy Europe partner on hydrogen network
German transmission system operator (TSO) Ontras and H2 Energy Europe have partnered to establish a green hydrogen transport network between Denmark and Germany, Kallanish reports.
Under an MOU, the companies will explore options to transport green hydrogen from H2 Energy Europe’s planned 1-gigawatt production facility in Denmark through the proposed German hydrogen core network (HCN). If successful, the hydrogen could be delivered to German industrial customers in Salzgitter, Berlin, Eisenhüttenstadt, Magdeburg and Leipzig-Halle, the companies said in a joint statement Thursday. These will include steelmakers, chemical manufacturers and power generators.
The companies say they could utilise the Ontras Green Octopus Mitteldeutschland pipeline, a roughly 300-kilometre-long pipeline connecting the industrial regions to the HCN. German utility EnBW, the parent company of Ontras, is investing €1 billion ($1.09 billion) to build HCN, which is estimated to come into operation by 2032.
Ontras and H2 Energy Europe plan to assess the technical and commercial transport requirements, as well as potential exit points, to bring green hydrogen from H2 Energy’s Esbjerg plant to Germany. Ultimately, the two companies intend to enter a long-term capacity contract.
“This agreement perfectly symbolises our dedication to creating a comprehensive hydrogen backbone on a European level,” says Ralph Bahke, Ontras’ managing director of controlling and development. “Hard-to-abate industries will be able to substantially reduce their carbon emissions using renewable hydrogen delivered to them through our network from sources such as this ambitious project in Denmark.”
H2 Energy Europe’s so-called Njordkraft project plans to construct a 1-GW green hydrogen production facility in Esbjerg, Denmark. The plant is expected to produce 90,000 tonnes/year of green hydrogen using power from offshore wind farms, with commercial operations planned for 2028.
Cyril Cabanes, chief executive of H2 Energy Europe, adds that connecting the proposed project to Ontras’ gas transport network in Germany, would “contribute to the development of an integrated, reliable hydrogen economy that spans across Europe.”
Reethu Ravi UK
German steel industry to become major green hydrogen offtaker
Europe’s steel industry is set to be a significant consumer of renewable hydrogen and German steelmakers in particular have some of the most advanced plans in the region to tap the new green energy source.
Potential future demand from the German steel sectorcould amount to 850,000 metric tons per year by 2030, according to German steel association WV Stahl, with producers planning to connect to a national hydrogen pipeline network now under construction, as well as producing their own green hydrogen from electrolyzers onsite, saving 28 t of CO2 per metric ton of hydrogen.
The German government expects total hydrogen demand of 95-130 TWh (2.85 million-3.90 million t/y) by 2030, with 40-75 TWh from new demand.
Carbon-accounted hot-rolled coil steel commanded a $120/t premium to the Platts conventional HRC assessment of $615/t ex-Ruhr on Aug. 7.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the cost of green hydrogen production via alkaline electrolysis in Germany, backed by renewable power purchase agreements, at an average of Eur7.98/kg ($8.71/kg) in July.
“The steel industry offers one of the most encouraging new use cases for low-carbon hydrogen due to the amount of CO2 that can be abated per kilogram of hydrogen,” Commodity Insights senior hydrogen analyst Matthew Hodgkinson said. “However, switching to low-carbon steel production is expensive, with ETS prices of at least Eur150-200/t required to make it comparable to current production methods.”
Platts assessed nearest December EU ETS prices at Eur71.04/t Aug. 7.
Complete decarbonization of EU crude steel production would require around 6 million to 8 million t/y of low-carbon hydrogen, comparable with current total hydrogen demand, Hodgkinson said.
German steel producers, backed by national and EU government policies, aim for climate neutrality by 2045, targeting a 30-50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Greening steel
Steel production accounts for around 5% of European CO2 emissions, and 8% globally. Germany is Europe’s largest steel producer and seventh biggest in the world, and the sector accounts for around 30% of the country’s industrial emissions.
Steel is produced through two main production routes that both emit CO2 — the blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace (BF/BOF), and the direct reduction iron/electric arc furnace (DRI/EAF) routes.
The predominant BF/BOF route removes oxygen from iron ore using a carbon reducing agent, such as coking coal, leading to around 1.6-2 t of CO2 emissions per metric ton of crude steel produced. The basic oxygen furnace then converts molten iron from the BF into steel.
Meanwhile, DRI plants can use natural gas, hydrogen or a mixture to remove oxygen from iron ore. Using only renewable hydrogen produces zero greenhouse gases. The EAF melts scrap steel or DRI to produce steel using electric arcs.
Around 60% of European steel production is via BF and around 40% via EAF, according to industry association Eurofer. Germany produced about 35.4 million metric tons of steel in 2023, down 4% year on year, of which 9.8 MMt was produced via EAF and 25.63 MMt via BF.
Steelmakers plan to replace BFs with hydrogen-based DRI, with most DRI plants in Germany to be paired with an EAF (see map).
Salzgitter, Stahl-Holding-Saar and Thyssenkrupp have all issued tenders to source large volumes of low-carbon hydrogen for their steel production from later in the decade.
These companies, along with ArcelorMittal, received state funding commitments in 2023 and 2024 under the EU’s Important Projects of Common European Interest program on hydrogen and low-carbon technologies.
Powering up
The switch will see a huge leap in renewable power demand.
The German steel industry’s current electricity demand from the grid is 12 TWh, according to WV Stahl. This could double by 2030 to 24 TWh, with crude steel production estimated around 42 MMt/y. Further green electricity will be required to power electrolysis, of around 28-29 TWh.
While being a large increase, those figures are a relatively small fraction of German power demand of around 500 TWh in 2023, forecast to rise to 649 TWh in 2030, according to Commodity Insights data.
European steelmakers are already marketing low-carbon steel products. Platts launched its daily carbon-accounted steel premium assessment in May 2023, which reflects any differential achieved for spot sales of hot-rolled coil on an ex-works basis, with total accounted carbon emissions of 2.1 t of CO2, or less, for every metric ton of steel produced.