Partnership to advance hydrogen-based ironmaking
BHP will collaborate with South Korean steel manufacturer POSCO on a technology for lower-emissions ironmaking.
BHP and POSCO have signed an agreement to progress HyREX, POSCO’s hydrogen-based direct reduced iron (DRI) production technology that uses fluidised bed reactors (FBR) and an electric smelting furnace (ESF) process to melt reduced iron.
The FBR and ESF processes are designed to use fine iron ore directly without being processed into pellets, which differs from conventional shaft based DRI processes that require the ore to first be pelletised.
POSCO has been developing FBR at lab-scale and ESF at pilot-scale, but the collaboration will support an additional scale-up, integrated hydrogen reduction FBR-ESF demonstration plant in Pohang, South Korea, including trials using BHP’s Pilbara iron ore.
The companies intend to share their technical expertise, focusing on R&D, demonstrating performance and evaluating feasibility of HyREX at scale.
Construction of the demonstration plant is expected to begin soon at Pohang Steelworks, with a target for commissioning in 2028.
Once completed, the demonstration plant is anticipated to have an ‘annual production capacity of 300,000t’ and be the first facility using hydrogen-based FBR technology integrated with an ESF for ironmaking at scale.
BHP is supporting multiple pathways for addressing steel decarbonisation, including carbon capture, utilisation and storage and other modifications in existing blast furnaces; emerging DRI-electric steelmaking methods (including DRI-ESF); and the electrochemical reduction route.
