ClimateYourBusiness

Salzgitter AG is a steelmaker in Germany with an annual capacity of 7.5 million tons of crude steel. The main share of production takes place in the company´s integrated steel works based in Salzgitter operating three blast furnaces. The technical approach chosen for SALCOS is to take advantage of a unique feature of ferrous metallurgy: Hydrogen can replace carbon in iron ore reduction processes, leading to the final formation of water (H₂O) rather than CO₂.

The strength of SALCOS is the further development of existing technology, namely the Direct Reduction based on natural gas. In line with EU climate goals, natural gas will be gradually replaced by electrolytical produced hydrogen from renewable energy, resulting in up to 95% reduction in overall CO₂ emissions. Salzgitter AG is already implementing the first building blocks by operating the world largest high-temperature electrolyzers (GrInHy/GrInHy 2) and investigating power-to-gas concepts with on-side wind turbines (Wind-H₂ Salzgitter).