This partnership will foster innovation in sustainable steel production, leveraging Tenova's cutting-edge technologies
Tenova has partnered with RINA, an engineering consultancy, inspection, and certification company, for the ambitious European Commission-backed Hydra project. This €88M initiative, funded by NextGenerationEU and supported by the Italian Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, aims to drive steel production using 100% hydrogen fuel. The goal is to enable all European steelmakers to test this method and shape future investment plans towards greener steel production.
Renowned for its expertise in sustainable technologies for steel decarbonization, Tenova will provide a 30m tall Direct Reduction Iron ore (DRI) tower using hydrogen as a reducing agent, along with an Electric Arc Furnace (EAF). Leveraging the cutting-edge ENERGIRON® Direct Reduction technology, jointly developed by Tenova and Danieli, by 2025 the DRI plant and Tenova EAF will collectively produce up to seven tons of steel per hour at full production capability with a significant reduction in carbon emissions.
This pilot mini mill will allow European steelmakers to experiment with various combinations, using different percentages of natural gases and hydrogen in the DRI plant, and testing a wide range of iron ores in the Tenova EAF. This will produce tangible results and insights for future investments and applications. Additionally, the EAF can also incorporate plastics or other waste materials as an alternative to carbon, further enhancing sustainability.
Tenova CEO
“I am very proud of this project with RINA as it provides all European steelmakers the first open-source facility that will enable them to test the process with our pilot plant and drive their future investments to drastically reduce their emissions. Our cooperation with RINA dates back to the nineties with several projects successfully developed”.
CEO and General Manager, RINA
“Hydra aims at decarbonizing the steel production process through hydrogen-based technologies. Thanks to the help of our partners, we will build a pilot plant to experiment with steel production, emitting a marginal fraction of the carbon emissions currently released by the world steel industry. Hydra is available to the entire supply chain for research & development on the production of clean steel”.
Related technologies
Want to know more?
Get in touch with our experts on the subject
