Air Liquide connects H2 pipeline to Thyssenkrupp's Duisburg steel mill

Air Liquide (EPA:AI) has recently inaugurated a four-kilometre-long pipeline that connects the Duisburg steel mill run by Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG with the French company’s hydrogen network in the Ruhr district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Western Germany.

"With the pipeline now completed by our partner Air Liquide, we are creating further facts. It will enable climate-friendly hydrogen to be delivered to us from 2024 onward. We will need it for research and simulation purposes and then, most importantly, to power our first direct reduction plant," said Bernhard Osburg, CEO of Thyssenkrupp Steel.

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The project was delivered as part of the H2Stahl real laboratory sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK). Its completion precedes the launch of the first 20-MW industrial-scale water electrolysis plant to be connected to Air Liquide's hydrogen network, which is expected to happen next autumn. The electrolyser is estimated to initially produce up to 2,900 tonnes of green hydrogen per year before its capacity is further expanded by at least 10 MW.

Presently, Air Liquide's 200-km-long network of pipelines in the Rhine and Ruhr region connects hydrogen production plants and major customers in Marl, Oberhausen, Duisburg, Krefeld, Leverkusen, Dormagen, Duesseldorf and other cities in the region.

Thyssenkrupp Steel said that it plans to build a direct reduction test facility to try out hydrogen-based, carbon-neutral hot iron production. It hopes to have its first large-scale industrial direct reduction plant with melting units completed in 2026 and is currently preparing to award contracts for its construction. According to the company, this should happen “shortly”.