On Thursday 20 July, the European Commission announced that it had authorised two German aid measures to support ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe (tkSE), firstly to reduce the carbon footprint of its steel production process, and secondly to speed up the use of renewable hydrogen at its Duisburg site.
The aid should take the form of a direct grant of up to €550 million and a conditional payment mechanism of up to €1.45 billion.
The direct grant will support the construction of a direct reduction plant and two steel foundries in Duisburg (Germany). These units are designed to replace an existing blast furnace.
The plant should be operational in 2026. Initially, the new plant will run on natural gas, but this fuel will gradually be phased out and the new plant should be powered exclusively by renewable hydrogen from 2037.
The conditional payment mechanism will cover the additional costs of using renewable hydrogen instead of low-carbon hydrogen. It is planned that tkSE will organise a competitive tendering procedure for renewable hydrogen and low-carbon hydrogen.
The project is expected to avoid the release of more than 58 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over its lifetime, according to the Commission.
The tkSE group is committed to sharing the technical know-how acquired as part of the project with academia and industry. (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)