tkH2Steel

thyssenkrupp Steel · Duisburg · DE · Steel · decarbonisation

In construction2.5 Mt directly reduced iron per year

tkH2Steel is thyssenkrupp Steel's steel project at Duisburg, Germany.

Why it matters

It is being built.

tkH2Steel went into construction on 20 July 2023. as of 2023-07-20
It is at Duisburg, Germany. as of 2023-07-20
It uses direct reduction with an electric furnace, hydrogen direct reduction and renewable hydrogen supply. as of 2023-07-20
It is built for 2.5 Mt directly reduced iron per year. as of 2023-07-20
€2.0 billion of public money has been committed to it. as of 2023-07-20

tkH2Steel is at Duisburg steelworks. Also in frame: 5 sites using the same technology, 1 site in the same sector.

filled: operating, commissioning or under constructionhollow: announced, funded, or pausedringed: this project

51.4907° N 6.7272° EDuisburg steelworks

as of 2026-09-09

2023-07-20FundedState aid approval granted for German federal and state funding of around two billion euros.source
2023-07-20In constructionThe same release records that SMS group was contracted for engineering, supply and construction of the direct reduction unit and its two melters, and that construction work had begun. Two entries share a date because one document reports both events.source

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.

€2.0 bnGerman federal and North Rhine-Westphalia state fundingapprovedA national decision, cleared by the Commission under the state aid rules. The register has read no act that carries the German scheme, so the funding names its programme and points at no measure. Same case as france-relance-k6; see issue #39.“The EU Commission has granted state aid approval for German federal and state government funding of the "tkH2Steel" decarbonization project in a total amount of around two billion euros”source