Energy company Masdar and EMSTEEL, a UAE steel and building materials company, have announced the completion of a pilot project demonstrating the use of green hydrogen to produce green steel.
The Abu Dhabi-based pilot project, the first-of-its-kind in the Middle East and North African region, uses green hydrogen to extract iron from iron ore, a key step in steelmaking.
“Decarbonization of hard-to-abate industries is vital to the global undertaking to achieve the objectives of the historic UAE Consensus agreed at COP28. Green hydrogen is an essential element in advancing national and global decarbonization efforts and we are proud to be at the forefront of that endeavor,” said Masdar Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi.
While a key industry globally, steel is considered hard to abate and highly carbon-intensive, contributing around eight per cent of worldwide carbon emissions.
According to the two parties, the renewable hydrogen produced by the project has been certified by Avance Labs, the hydrogen code manager accredited by the International Tracking Standard Foundation, in accordance with the recently released ISO 19870 methodology for hydrogen.
The certification data was validated by Bureau Veritas, acting as the third-party assurance provider.