What is green steel?
- 19 December 2022
- Published by: Andreas Janisch
- Category: Industry news

The industrial production of Steel is an important one, but also environmentally harmful Industry. In Germany, industrial emissions contribute 20% of greenhouse gas emissions, which is approximately 200 million tons of CO2 equivalents per year corresponds. The steel and iron industry is the largest single cause in this sector. Traditional steel production relies on blast furnaces that run on coal and therefore cause high CO2 emissions. To minimize the impact on the environment, there are efforts to develop more sustainable methods of steel production, such as using green hydrogen or renewable energy.
What is green steel?
The term “green steel” is currently still not clearly defined. At the moment, customers still have to be careful in order not to fall victim to a label fraud. The term often refers simply to steel that reduces its impact on the environment through the use of renewable energy in production, the reduction of emissions and waste, and the use of recycled steel minimized become. So you have to distinguish between CO2 reduced and CO2 neutral steel.
Key technology green hydrogen
In the actual sense, however, green steel is understood CO2 neutral steel that steel production will be completely converted to renewable sources. This also requires the replacement of the traditional blast furnace process with the environmentally friendly but expensive direct reduction process using green hydrogen.
Green hydrogen is produced using Electrolysis from water won. This involves water using electricity from renewable energies split into hydrogen and oxygen, making the hydrogen climate-neutral.
An alternative to this is to use Natural gas as a starting material to produce hydrogen. This process, in which natural gas is split into hydrogen and carbon dioxide under heat, is called steam reforming. The hydrogen produced with it is called gray hydrogen because CO2 is released and the process is therefore not climate neutral.
Blue hydrogen is also made from natural gas, but the resulting CO2 is stored and not released into the atmosphere. This means that blue hydrogen is considered CO2-neutral.
Turquoise hydrogen is obtained from natural gas through methane pyrolysis. Natural gas is split to produce hydrogen and solid carbon which is not released into the atmosphere. This procedure is still in research. Turquoise hydrogen is Co2 neutral, if the heat supply to the reactor comes from renewable energies.
Green steel plays an important role in the development of sustainable industries and is an important factor in achieving climate goals.
For the production of climate-neutral green steel enormous amounts of green hydrogen are required. The production of green hydrogen is still in its early stages and will need to be scaled up over the next few years to deliver the required quantities.
The application of green steel
The product is identical to conventional steel, so the application is also identical. However, green steel is in production significantly more expensive. This means that it will primarily be used where material costs are not of great importance, or where the image of sustainability is so great that customers ultimately bear the additional costs.
For a luxury watch, the use of green steel has little impact on the cost and the image is important. In a warehouse, however, it is exactly the opposite. For such applications, only legal requirements will lead to large-scale use.
The future of green steel
The Demand for green steel is growing worldwide, as more companies and governments want to develop sustainable industries. Green steel is expected to play an important role in achieving climate goals in the future.
Conclusion
Green steel is an important step towards a more sustainable industry and helps minimize the impact on the environment. By using renewable energy in manufacturing and reducing emissions and waste, green steel can play an important role in slowing climate change. The demand for green steel will continue to grow in the future, but large-scale use will require external incentives.
Last revised on August 31, 2023 by Andreas Janisch