A consortium of six companies including French utility Engie and US electrolyser-maker Plug Power has unveiled plans to develop a €2.2bn ($2.3bn) hydrogen-based green iron production plant at Fos sur Mer, a major port and industrial complex near Marseille in southern France.

The consortium, called GravitHy, also includes sustainable energy investor EIT Innoenergy, automotive technology company Forvia, real-estate developer Groupe Idec and steel technology company Primetals Technologies. EIT has backing from the EU via the European Institute of Innovation.

Construction of the plant is scheduled to start in 2024, with commissioning in 2027, subject to regulatory approval. The facility would produce 2mn t/yr of direct-reduced iron using a process fuelled by green and low-carbon hydrogen.

“It is time to make a step-change in technology” Vernier, Gravithy

The product would be either used by steelmakers at the Fos sur Mer complex or traded globally in the form of hot briquetted iron. DRI is a feedstock for electric arc furnace steelmaking.

“There is considerable appetite to transform energy-intensive industries in France, with the steel sector high on the agenda,” says Karine Vernier, consortium leader of GravitHy.

“GravitHy will be a vital component in the French government’s proposed steel roadmap and its ambitions to cut CO₂ emissions by 40pc by 2030. It is time to make a step-change in technology, to replace old blast furnaces with DRIs produced from green and low-carbon hydrogen and combined with electric arc furnaces.”

The EU’s internal market commissioner Thierry Breton adds that “given the geopolitical, energy and industrial situation we are experiencing, Europe has a strategic interest in developing a thriving hydrogen economy. The GravitHy project is an important milestone and will contribute to our European goal of producing 10mn t of clean hydrogen by 2030.”

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Author: Stuart Penson