Tata Steel considers hydrogen electrolyser for Netherlands site

Tata Steel is working with industrial partners to investigate options for the development of a 100MW green hydrogen electrolyser to feed the steelmaking process at the company’s site in the Netherlands. The electrolyser may also be connected to a hydrogen grid, Tata Steel Europe chief executive Henrik Adam said at the Kallanish Europe Steel Markets virtual conference last week.

Circularity will play a key role in Tata Steel’s decarbonisation plans. “I see the promising potential of hydrogen-based production technology … While we recognise the decarbonising potential of the green gas, we also recognise the issue of hydrogen readiness and affordability together with the amount of renewable energy needed to produce green hydrogen for large scale production,” Adam commented.

“In the Netherlands, for example, we would need every megawatt of wind power generated by the country’s wind farms until 2030 to produce enough green hydrogen to satisfy our own needs, but, of course, we are not the only electricity consumer in the Netherlands who wants this green energy. We will need to generate a lot more renewable energy in Europe to satisfy everyone’s needs and to satisfy decarbonisation needs,” he continued.

The company sees in carbon capture technology and storage a strong potential to enable large-scale decarbonisation already in the short term. It is working with partners to develop a CO2 distribution network to support carbon utilisation or storage. Tata Steel plans to capture CO2 from its blast furnaces in IJmuiden and transport it for storage in empty gas fields under the North Sea. The project would lead to a 30% reduction in CO2 from the steelmaking site. The company hopes to launch the project from 2027 (see Kallanish passim).

Natalia Capra France