Industrial gases company Air Liquide has completed a pipeline to provide green hydrogen to steelmaker Thyssenkrupp at its Duisburg complex in Germany.

The 4km pipeline connects the Duisburg steel mill to Air Liquide's hydrogen network in the Ruhr district. The network links hydrogen production plants and consumers in Marl, Oberhausen, Krefeld, Leverkusen, Dormagen, Dusseldorf and other cities in the region.

The pipeline will transport 2,900t/yr of green hydrogen from late 2023.

2,900 t/yr – Capacity of pipeline

“By linking our site to the Air Liquide hydrogen pipeline, we are creating the conditions for climate-friendly steel production,” says Bernhard Osburg, CEO of Thyssenkrupp Steel.

Thyssenkrupp plans to spend more than $2bn on a hydrogen-powered direct-reduced-iron (DRI) plant at Duisburg.

The DRI plant will replace some of the Duisburg site’s coking coal-fired blast furnace capacity. Thyssenkrupp’s steel operations account for about 2.5pc of Germany’s CO₂ emissions, with the main source being the Duisburg blast furnaces.

The company expects the facility—which will have a production capacity of 2.5mn t/yr—to start up in 2026.

"For the industrial transformation to succeed, we need determined cooperation between policymakers and industry. The new hydrogen pipeline to Thyssenkrupp Steel in Duisburg is a prime example of this,” says Gilles Le Van, vice-president of large industries and energy transition for Air Liquide Central Europe.

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Author: Tom Young