MECON Limited, engaged by Ministry of Steel as Scheme Implementing Agency, has issued Request for Proposal (RfP) seeking proposal from the prospective Bidders for use of Hydrogen in DRI Pilot Plant, in existing Blast Furnace and in existing DRI Vertical shaft. The RfP document has been uploaded in e-tender mode in Tenderwizard, MECON website and in Central Procurement Portal on 11.06.2024 with Bid submission date as 08.07.2024.

The CPSUs, state-PSUs, Private sectors, state corporations, Indian R&D institutions/Research labs/Academic institutions, indigenous equipment design and manufacturing companies, JVs/partnership/consortium of such entities are invited to submit proposals for their selected scheme.

Green Hydrogen integration in the steel sector

Steel production is one of the sectors having the need as well as great potential for replacement of fossil fuels with green hydrogen. With the fast-developing technological scenario in respect of renewable energy and electrolysers for the production of hydrogen, it is expected that green-hydrogen based steel may become cost competitive over the next few years. To assess the potential for use of Green Hydrogen in the steel industry, National Green Hydrogen Mission under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is supporting and setting up pilot projects in the steel sector. A budgetary outlay of ₹455 crore till FY 2029-30 has been earmarked for the steel sector under the Mission.

The thrust areas under the scheme for considering support for development/selection/validation of commercially viable technologies, for the utilization of hydrogen in steel sector, are as follows:

1. Pilot project to produce DRI using 100 % Hydrogen using vertical shaft (Scheme-A).
2. Use of Hydrogen in Blast Furnace to reduce coal/coke consumption (Scheme-B).
3. Injection of Hydrogen in vertical shaft based DRI making unit to partially substitute the NG/other reducing gas & raise its proportion in a gradual manner with an objective to use the maximum hydrogen (Scheme-C).

The objectives of the schemes are to advance technologies and expertise for the utilization of Hydrogen in the steelmaking process, to support the deployment of Hydrogen in the iron and steel sector, to validate the technical feasibility and performance of Hydrogen in the Iron & Steel manufacturing in real-world operational conditions, to evaluate the economic viability of the use of Green Hydrogen in the iron & steel sector, to evaluate the performance of Hydrogen based low carbon iron & steel and to demonstrate safe and secure operations of Hydrogen based production of low-carbon iron & steel.

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KS