SALCOS stage one

Status

1. Announced
2. Funded2023-04-18
3. FID taken
4. In construction2024-03-07
5. Operating

• 2023-04-18FundedOfficial notice of €700 million federal and €300 million Lower Saxony funding for stage one.source
• 2024-03-07In constructionContract awarded for the direct reduction unit, the largest sub-unit of stage one.source

Technology and measures

• Direct reduction with an electric furnacedemonstrationIron ore is reduced in the solid state with gas rather than smelted with coke in a blast furnace, and the resulting iron is melted in an electric furnace. It is the route Europe's integrated sites are converting to, and it is being built to run on natural gas first and hydrogen later, which is why the conversion and the fuel are two different questions with two different timetables.
• Hydrogen direct reductionpilotThe reducing gas is hydrogen rather than natural gas, so what leaves the furnace is water rather than CO2. It is the only route that takes the chemistry of ironmaking to near zero, and it is separated from the conversion itself because every European unit under construction is being commissioned on natural gas and switched later.
• Renewable hydrogen supplydemonstrationThe electrolysers, power contracts and pipelines that have to deliver hydrogen at industrial volume and at a price the iron pays for, and which no single steel site can build for itself. It stands beside CO2 transport and storage as the other thing that sector is waiting for rather than doing. IT IS NOW SHARED. Steel reached it as a dependency; the hydrogen dataset reaches it as the thing being built, so the technology carries both sectors rather than being duplicated under a second name.

Funding

• €700 mGerman federal funding for industrial decarbonisationapprovedA national decision. The register has read no act that carries the German scheme, so the funding names its programme and points at no measure. See issue #39.“€ 700 million in federal funding and € 300 million from the state government”source
• €300 mState of Lower Saxony fundingapprovedA regional decision alongside the federal one. Recorded as its own allocation because two governments took two decisions, and a single row would state one funder where there are two. See issue #39.“€ 700 million in federal funding and € 300 million from the state government”source

Sources

• Salzgitter AG receives official notice of government funding for the SALCOS low-CO2 steel production programSalzgitter AG · 2023-04-18
• SALCOS milestone reached — Salzgitter AG awards contract for direct reduction plantSalzgitter AG · 2024-03-07