Page 15 - Steel Metallurgy eMagazine Volume April 2026

COMPANY FOCUS

NM : Decarbonisation has become significantly to decarbonisation. The and an EAF Ultimate to Dillinger and its
a major priority for steelmakers latest Arvedi ESP startup was in the US subsidiary ROGESA in Germany. Our
worldwide, especially in Europe. How is last year, and it is working extremely well. scope in these projects include state-
Primetals supporting producers in their We are very hopeful that this year we will of-the-art environmental technologies
transition towards low-carbon or green sell the first Arvedi ESP plant in India, for sound and gas emission reduction
steel? India’s net-zero target is 2070, which would be extremely important as well as heat recovery systems. All of
but producers like Tata Steel and JSW as it is a new technology for the Indian these are well on track and Salzgitter
have already drawn up plans. How can market. and voestalpine have subsequent phases
Primetals support their decarbonisation planned to complete the transition.
initiatives?
NM : How far are we in terms of a
NP : We are actively engaged with all of fully hydrogen-based furnace? And
these companies and have signed several how far are we from Carbon Capture,
agreements with them, including with Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS)? When
Tata Steel. We offer various technologies: do you expect a paradigm shift towards
for example, our SIP— Sequence Impulse HYFOR® ELIMINATES THE hydrogen-based production and carbon
Process — for blast furnaces, which NEED FOR A PELLETISING capture?
reduces emissions and lowers operating PLANT ENTIRELY — WHICH
costs by enabling greater use of PCI IS NORMALLY A HUGE NP : That is actually not a question
and reducing the coke rate, leading to INVESTMENT, COMPARABLE IN of technology, Mr. Mukherjee — the
lower CO2 emissions. We are currently COST TO THE DR PLANT ITSELF technology is already available. Midrex
executing a SIP project at a major Indian plants, for example, can run on almost
steel producer. 100% hydrogen. From a technological
standpoint, there is no doubt and no
question. The issue is the availability of
economically feasible hydrogen.

In Sweden, for instance, there are
electrolysers producing hydrogen from
renewable energy — that is already
happening. But the price of hydrogen is
the key challenge. Today, in areas like
the Middle East, it is far more probable
that operators will use a natural gas-fired
DR plant rather than produce hydrogen,
given the significant price difference.
Nevertheless, even going from a blast
furnace — which emits around two
tonnes of CO2 per tonne of hot metal —
to a gas-fired DR plant already reduces
emissions by about two-thirds. That is
already a huge step, even without green
hydrogen. At the same time, the industry
expectation is to achieve less than $4
per kilogram for electrolytic hydrogen,
which would change the economics
Arvedi ESP produces endless hot-rolled coils (eHRC) from liquid steel in just 5 minutes through a seam- considerably. Carbon capture is also
less, continuous process. an option, and we promote our parent
company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’
(MHI) amine-based KM CDR
Then there is, of course, the electrification In Europe, we are executing the biggest technology. This MHI technology has a
of steelmaking via our Quantum or decarbonisation projects on the continent market share of about 70% in industry
Ultimate EAF furnaces. Our Arvedi — supplying the electric arc furnace applications, with 18 industrial reference
ESP technology — an endless casting at Salzgitter, the electric arc furnace at plants. It can efficiently capture carbon
and rolling process — also contributes voestalpine in Linz, and both a DRI plant emissions from iron-making.

APRIL 2026 STEEL & METALLURGY 15