1Director-
The indirect use of Hydrogen in Iron and steel making is being practiced since long in DRI making process where natural gas is used to produce direct reduced iron (DRI), called sponge iron. In this process natural gas is reformed and converted into syn gas which contain more than 50-60% Hydrogen and large percentage of Carbon mono oxide. Syn gas can also be produced through Coal gasification but that generates large amount of CO2. The mixture of hydrogen and CO, both act as a reducing agent for converting solid iron oxide into solid iron inside a shaft furnace at around 1,000 °C. Overall, this route has 35–40% lower CO2 emissions than conventional steelmaking. Many of the global steelmakers plan to transition DRI facilities to use more hydrogen in the mix or build new DRI plants that run almost entirely on green hydrogen but technology is still under developmental stage.
