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Sponsored Content by SSAB

The fossil-free steel in

this vehicle could cut
global CO2 emissions
by 7%

Electric vehicles get the lion’s share of

attention in the quest to lower the carbon
footprint of transportation. But one critical
element often gets overlooked, say
executives at Swedish steelmaker SSAB:
the steel that goes into them.

That’s a major oversight since an

estimated 7% of the world’s CO2
emissions come from steel production.
And, of course, it’s not just carmakers that
use steel. Steel is also everywhere else in
our society, including bridges, buildings,
and a lot more. That means any
technology that reduces emissions for
steelmaking could also significantly reduce
iron and steel emissions globally.

Steelmaking has been around for

hundreds of years, but now a consortium
of Swedish companies called HYBRIT —
comprising SSAB, mining company LKAB,
and energy company Vattenfall — has
advanced the art into the 21st century by
creating it in a fossil-free process.

First proof of concept: a Volvo TA-15

autonomous dump truck, the first vehicle
made of fossil-free steel. It’s also fully
electric.

Transforming an ancient industry

“We all saw the need to challenge the

current methods of iron and steelmaking
since they are significant sources of CO2
emissions,” says Martin Pei, SSAB’s Chief
Technology Officer. He says it wasn’t
enough to go fossil-free for production.
“We decided to create an entirely fossil-
free value chain, all the way from the
mining, iron ore processing to iron and
steel production, including logistics
services and electricity.”

Pei says, technology could reduce

Sweden’s total carbon dioxide emissions
by about 10% — equivalent to a third of
the country’s industrial emissions.

Fossil-free steel is currently expected to

cost more than steel made by
conventional methods. But Pei says the
cost gap will continue to narrow with rising
carbon taxes and falling costs for fossil-
free electricity. He’s convinced producers
and customers will get on board.
“Becoming fossil-free is a challenge all
companies need to take on, and that
includes changing both mindsets,
committed to a new strategy as well as
developing new production technologies.”

Carbon from renewable sources

The raw material for steel is iron ore, an

iron oxide. To make pure iron, steelmakers
must remove the oxygen from the iron
oxide. In conventional steelmaking, blast
furnaces use coal as a reduction agent to
accomplish the task. Carbon from the coal
pairs with oxygen from the iron, resulting in
carbon dioxide emissions.

The HYBRIT iron-making process makes it

possible to skip the blast furnaces.
Instead, it uses hydrogen produced from
water using electricity from fossil-free
energy sources to remove oxygen from the
iron. The result is no more carbon dioxide
emissions since the only by-product is
water.

SSAB estimates in a feasibility study that

the cost for fossil-free steel to be
approximately 20-30% higher than
traditional steelmaking due to the
investments still needed to retrofit and
build new plants and the currently higher
costs for renewable energy. But a saving
grace is that the process is more energy-
efficient. According to SSAB, one metric
ton of fossil-free crude steel requires 4100
kWh to produce, compared to 5800 kWh
— 41% more — for traditional steel
production.

Credit: Volvo

A fossil-free-steel first for vehicles

In October, the Volvo Group unveiled the

first vehicle made of fossil-free steel from
SSAB. Volvo produces its autonomous,
battery-powered TA-15 dump trucks,
including the one made with fossil-free
steel, at its Volvo Construction Equipment
factory in Braås, Sweden.

The machine, capable of hauling 15 tonnes

of rock and other materials, is designed for
quarries, mining sites, and other confined
off-road work sites. At the unveiling, Volvo
announced that more vehicles made with
fossil-free steel would follow in 2022.

“This initiative with SSAB sets the

benchmark for a fossil-free future,”
said Martin Lundstedt, President and CEO
of the Volvo Group. “Just as the nations of
the world come together at COP26 to
address climate change, so too must
organizations and industries work in
collaboration to develop innovative new
solutions for a greenhouse gas emission-
free future.”

Next steps

Eva Petursson, Executive Vice President

for Research and Innovation at SSAB, says
more research, development, and
cooperation are needed to take the fossil-
free steelmaking process from prototype to
mass production. Challenges include
scaling up the technology and retrofitting
blast furnaces at SSAB’s plant in
Oxelösund, Sweden. “But,” Petursson
says, “as we see demand for fossil-free
steel from customers globally surging,
we’re convinced that we will meet our
ambitious timetable.” That timetable calls
for commercial production of fossil-free
steel by 2026.

In addition, Petursson says SSAB is

committed to becoming completely fossil-
free by 2045. “We seek to do so by
challenging the way steel has been
produced since the beginning by
developing a new technology based on
100% reduction with hydrogen. SSAB is
already one of the world’s most CO2-
efficient steel companies. But we want to
do more.”

Find out more about SSAB’s

development of fossil-free steel at
ssab.com/fossil-free-steel.

01:21

The world's first vehicle made of

fossil-free steel from SSAB

This sponsored article was created by

TechCrunch Brand Studio. Learn more
about partnering with TechCrunch Brand
Studio.

01:21

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