A “green hydrogen” solution is being considered as a last-ditch effort to save the UK’s “primary steelmaking” capability from the government’s own green transition. As Business Secretary Peter Kyle backs a move to scrap-melting electric arc furnaces (EAFs), this high-tech fix is the only way to bridge the gap.
The core problem is that Kyle’s EAF plan for Scunthorpe, while clean, would mean scrapping the blast furnaces. This would break the government’s 2024 pledge to “preserve ‘primary steelmaking'” (making steel from iron ore).
The proposed compromise is a separate facility to produce Direct Reduced Iron (DRI). This plant would “turn iron ore into direct reduced iron… using clean hydrogen,” creating a product that EAFs can use to make primary steel with low emissions.
This “best of both worlds” fix is on shaky ground. “Industry sources have cast doubt on the financial viability” of the plan. It’s a costly, complex addition to a strategy already hampered by a depleted steel fund.
As the government prepares its December steel strategy, it faces a monumental choice. It must either abandon its primary steelmaking pledge, or it must find the money to fund this expensive and “dubious” hydrogen-based compromise.