Tag Archives: Vattenfall

SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall start up world’s first pilot plant for fossil-free steel

Environmental, Mineral processing, Power supply for mines, Steel and iron ore, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , ,

SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall have celebrated the start-up of their HYBRIT pilot plant as part of a project to produce fossil-free sponge iron.

Sweden Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven, started up the plant together with Isabella Lövin, Minister for Environment and Climate and Deputy Prime Minister in Sweden, Martin Lindqvist, President and CEO of SSAB, Jan Moström, President and CEO of LKAB, and Magnus Hall, President and CEO of Vattenfall, today.

The achievement comes just over two years since ground was broken to mark the start of the pilot plant build for fossil-free sponge iron (direct reduced iron/hot briquetted iron) with financial support from the Swedish Energy Agency.

At the plant, HYBRIT will perform tests in several stages in the use of hydrogen in the direct reduction of iron ore. The hydrogen will be produced at the pilot plant by electrolysing water with fossil-free electricity. Tests will be carried out between 2020 and 2024, first using natural gas and then hydrogen to be able to compare production results.

The framework for HYBRIT also includes a full-scale effort to replace fossil oil with bio oil in one of LKAB’s existing pellet plants in Malmberget, Sweden, in a test period extending until 2021. Preparations are also under way to build a test hydrogen storage facility on LKAB’s land in Svartöberget in Luleå, near the pilot plant.

The HYBRIT initiative has the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 10% in Sweden and 7% in Finland, as well as contributing to cutting steel industry emissions in Europe and globally. Today, the steel industry generates 7% of total global carbon-dioxide emissions, according to the companies.

“With HYBRIT, SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall aim to create a completely fossil-free value chain from the mine to finished steel and to introduce a completely new technology using fossil-free hydrogen instead of coal and coke to reduce the oxygen in iron ore,” they said. “This means the process will emit ordinary water instead of carbon dioxide.”

Northvolt and Vattenfall partner on modular zero-emission power option offering

Environmental, Mining services, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , ,

Northvolt and Vattenfall have announced a new battery energy storage solution that could provide a zero-emission alternative to running diesel generators on remote mine sites.

The Voltpack Mobile System is a rugged, highly modular lithium-ion battery system that can serve as a modular power supply solution to meet energy and power requirements of a wide variety of market scenarios, the companies said.

Prime applications include powering remote electricity grids, reinforcing weak grids, supporting electric vehicle charging and delivering grid services such as balancing power, flexibility, or other ancillary services, they said.

“Designed for redeployment, the system can be deployed for operations lasting days, weeks or even longer periods of time,” the companies said. “This characteristic opens Voltpack Mobile System up to opportunities of leasing and is expected to significantly expand the system’s utility.”

Within the project, Northvolt has led development and production of core technologies, including battery and complementary inverter systems, and the battery management system. Vattenfall, drawing on the company’s experience of delivering commercial grid solutions to market, has supported Voltpack Mobile System project development to tailor the product to match the needs of the market, through both advising on design and functionality, they said.

Emad Zand, President Battery Systems, Northvolt, said the company sees an increased need from the market for flexible solutions, both in terms of use case and location.

“Voltpack Mobile System is designed to give our customers a fleet of assets that can be redeployed, repurposed and connected seamlessly,” he said. “Vattenfall has been an invaluable partner of Northvolt since our earliest days, and their contributions to this project have enabled us to accelerate development of a product built to customer requirements.”

Torbjörn Johansson, Head of Vattenfall Network Solutions Sweden, said: “The need for flexible energy solutions such as energy storage is vital for the transition to the new energy system. Energy storage provides fast access to power when customers need to peak-shave, or the capacity of the grid connection is insufficient.

“The battery storage solution will be offered as part of our concept ‘Power-as-a-service’, which means that we deliver a complete package with ownership of the energy storage and manage it to the specification of the customer. Vattenfall add(s) a long experience of owning and operating different kind of network solutions including energy storage.”

Final validation of the system will be undertaken at Vattenfall’s test and certification centre in Älvkarleby, Sweden.

Vattenfall will be the first to offer the battery unit to the market and has identified the need for sustainable solutions at industries, for microgrids, construction sites as well as for event organisers, the companies said.

Voltpack Mobile System delivers up to 250 kW with a scalable capacity from 245 kWh to 1,225 kWh of available energy, according to the companies.

“The system scales through a central interface hub, which can connect in parallel up to five self-contained Voltpacks, each containing three liquid-cooled, industrial-grade battery Voltpack Cores,” the companies said. “The hub also serves as an interface for applications, and houses inverter and auxiliary systems. If further power or storage capacity is needed, this can be fulfilled simply by connecting multiple Voltpack Mobile Systems in parallel.”

Voltpacks feature high safety standards and are designed and built by Northvolt, the companies said.

“Leveraging field-proven technologies, Voltpack Mobile System is well-suited to operate under even the harshest conditions with a rugged profile and unique design features engineered for transportation and repeated redeployment.”

HYBRIT hydrogen storage facility finds financial backing

Environmental, Metallurgy, Mining industry recognition, Power supply for mines, Steel and iron ore, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , , , , ,

SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall have agreed to invest SEK150 million ($15.2 million) on construction of a storage facility for hydrogen at the HYBRIT pilot plant for fossil-free steel.

The funding, which comes on top of the Swedish Energy Agency’s close to SEK50 million pledge, is an important step towards the goal of fossil-free iron and steel production, the HYBRIT joint venture partners said.

The HYBRIT initiative began in 2016. By using fossil-free electricity and hydrogen instead of coke and coal in steel production, the emissions will be water instead of carbon dioxide. The initiative has the potential to reduce Sweden’s total carbon dioxide emissions by 10%, according to company estimates.

The plan is to build the new hydrogen gas storage facility 25-35 m below the ground surface on LKAB’s land in Svartöberget, Sweden, close to the pilot plant currently under construction on SSAB’s site in Luleå. Construction of the 100 cu.m storage facility is expected to start in 2021 and it will operate from 2022-2024. It is expected to be a pressurised hydrogen gas storage facility in a bedrock cavern with a steel lining as a sealing layer.

The implementation study for the HYBRIT initiative showed large-scale storage of hydrogen gas can play an important role in Sweden’s future energy system. As well as acting as a buffer to ensure an even flow to the steel production, a large-scale hydrogen gas storage facility would offer a better opportunity to balance the electricity system with a greater proportion of weather-dependent power generation, and enable a competitive production cost for the fossil-free steel, according to the project partners.

Magnus Hall, Vattenfall’s President and CEO, said: “I am very pleased that we, as partners, are step by step developing our joint fossil-free steel project, and the support from the Swedish Energy Agency is important.

“Now, with the support of the community, we are investing in the next piece of the jigsaw puzzle for a value chain in which hydrogen gas plays a decisive role in the success of the initiative and the development of competitive fossil-free electricity generation in Sweden.”

Martin Lindqvist, SSAB’s President and CEO, said the investment in a storage facility for fossil-free hydrogen gas is “an important building block in achieving our goal of a fossil-free value chain from ore to finished steel”, with Jan Moström, LKAB’s President and CEO, adding that he was pleased the project could make use of parts of the company’s former ore port facility for the experiment.

Robert Andrén, Director General of the Swedish Energy Agency, said large, complex and expensive leaps in technology need to be taken for the sake of the climate, to achieve the goal of zero net emissions.

“Large-scale storage of hydrogen gas will be an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle for a fossil-free value chain for steel manufacturing, but also in a future electricity system with an increasing proportion of weather-dependent power,” he said.

In June last year, SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall, the HYBRIT initiative partners, started the construction of a unique pilot plant in Luleå. Work also began recently on the reconstruction of a pellet works in Malmberget to replace fossil fuel with bio oil, with the aim of manufacturing fossil-free pellets.

The pilot plants for fossil-free steel production will be used from 2021 to 2024, and the partners are already looking into the possibility of scaling up the manufacturing by building a demonstration plant in 2025, three years earlier than previously planned, to produce fossil-free steel from iron ore for commercial use. The aim for 2035 is to sell fossil-free steel on a broad scale.

Boliden and Vattenfall sign agreement to electrify mines and smelters

Base metals, Environmental, Mine operation news, Mining services, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , , ,

Vattenfall and Boliden say they have signed an agreement to jointly evaluate technical developments to electrify mines and smelters, “the circular economy and a fossil-free future”. The agreement, which covers a four-year period, also includes battery solutions with a view to supporting the electricity grid and optimising electricity consumption, the two companies said.

The companies said: “Vattenfall and Boliden are committed to the transition to a sustainable society, which means reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Under the new four-year strategic agreement, the companies will develop business solutions involving batteries, solar panels, electric transport and recycling of new generation car batteries.”

President and CEO of Vattenfall, Magnus Hall, said: “It’s great that Vattenfall and Boliden can work together on this. It will require technological change and investments in new solutions, but the opportunities are there for both companies. Industrial partnerships like this are crucial if we are to make progress on the electrification of industry and enable fossil-free living within one generation.”

President and CEO of Boliden, Mikael Staffas, said: “Boliden is one of Europe’s largest players in the field of base metals. These metals are a crucial part of the solution for achieving ambitious climate targets in society. At the same time, it’s clearly important for us to drive the development forward within the raw materials sector and identify business solutions and processes for both mining and recycling which will make us more competitive.”

Boliden has mining and smelting operations in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Ireland, with the main sources of fossil emissions include diesel vehicles, process heat and coke as a reducing agent.

“In all areas, fossil-free electricity can be an important part of the solution,” the two companies said. “As a technology-independent partner, Vattenfall can evaluate and enable the introduction of fossil-free technologies, eg electricity and charging infrastructure for transport and mining.”

As a first step in the partnership, modern energy solutions will be implemented at the Bergsöe lead smelter in Landskrona, one of Europe’s largest recyclers of lead batteries from cars. Solar panels, which will produce locally generated renewable electricity to power the plant, will also be installed shortly, according to the two companies.

Technical solutions involving batteries, among other things, are expected to reduce the load on the electricity grid, provide backup power, reduce peaks in capacity and offset renewable weather-dependent electricity generation, they said.