Liberty Steel to build hydrogen-based steel plant in France

UK-based Liberty Steel Group, part of the GFG Alliance, has announced plans to build a new hydrogen-based steel plant in France. The country's first steel plant of its kind will be built in partnership with two European companies with which Liberty Steel has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

In a statement released yesterday, the company said it had entered into an agreement with Paul Wurth and Stahl-Holding-Saar (SHS) to evaluate the construction and operation of an industrial-scale steel plant in Dunkirk, France, in what it believes will be the first operation of this type in the entire France.

The plant will be built adjacent to the Alvance Aluminum GFG Alliance site. It will house a 2 million tonne direct reduction iron (DRI) plant in addition to an integrated hydrogen electrolysis plant with a capacity of about gigawatts. The DRI plant will initially operate on a mixture of hydrogen and natural gas. Upon completion of the electrolysis plant, it will use 100% hydrogen. At the same time, the financial details of the project were not disclosed.

Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of the GFG Alliance and Liberty Steel Group, recalled that hydrogen-based steel production will lead to significant reductions in carbon emissions.