Cleveland-Cliffs completed a hydrogen injection trial at its Indiana Harbor No. 7 blast furnace in East Chicago.
The test on Jan. 26 marks the second Cleveland-Cliffs blast furnace to use hydrogen as a reductant and fuel source. The company also ran a successful trial at their Middletown Works facility in southwest Ohio in May 2023.
The Indiana Harbor No. 7 blast furnace is the largest blast furnace in North America. It is among the largest in the world in size and production capacity.
Cliffs recently commissioned the new hydrogen pipeline at Indiana Harbor that was used for the trial. The pipeline was completed earlier than scheduled. Linde is Cliffs’ hydrogen gas supplier.
Using hydrogen is part of Cliffs’ efforts to decarbonize and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“As the American iron and steel leader, we are proud that we are ahead of the rest of the world in using the technologies that make our blast furnace steel the cleanest in the world, including using iron ore pellets, natural gas injection, HBI (hot briquetted iron) and now hydrogen,” said Lourenco Goncalves, Cliffs’ chairman, president and CEO, in a press release.
Cleveland-Cliffs is the largest producer of flat-rolled steel and manufacturer of iron ore pellets in North America. The company was founded in 1847 as a mine operator. Cleveland-Cliffs is based in Cleveland. The company employs about 28,000 people in the U.S. and Canada.
