The Hydrogen Stream: Gensol, Matrix consortium to develop green hydrogen powered steel facility

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Gensol Engineering Ltd, a solar EPC solutions provider, announced today it has partnered with Matrix Gas & Renewables, a green hydrogen EPC player, to develop India’s first and largest green steel production facility. This facility, with a capacity of 50 tons per day (tpd), will utilize 100% green hydrogen.

“It is one of three pilot projects sanctioned under the National Green Hydrogen Mission by MECON, in alignment with the Ministry of Steel and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, representing significant technological advancement in sustainable steel production in India,” stated a release by Gensol and Matrix.

The project’s total capital expenditure (capex) is estimated at INR 321 crore, with the Government of India providing 50% capex incentives.

“The facility will employ direct reduced iron (DRI) vertical shaft technology to convert iron ore into sponge iron. Developed for Indian-grade ore, this process will support Matrix’s broader goal of establishing similar Green Steel plants for medium- to small-scale producers in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and other regions across India,” stated Matrix

“Traditionally, sponge iron production relies on fossil fuels, emitting CO₂ in the process. By utilizing green hydrogen produced with renewable energy, this new approach will replace coal and natural gas, eliminating CO₂ emissions—a major leap forward in clean iron production.”

Other consortium members collaborating on this plant include Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar and Metsol AB (Sweden).

Matrix will oversee the entire project lifecycle, including land acquisition, environmental assessments, and all critical phases of design, engineering, procurement, and logistics. The scope of work will cover the manufacturing, supply, erection, inspection, installation, testing, and commissioning of the facility, along with the development of supporting infrastructure.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers are studying a rift running from beneath Lake Superior through parts of Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas to determine how best to access the trapped geologic hydrogen. “To test the viability of hydrogen production in the rift, a test well was drilled in Nebraska five years ago,” said the researchers. “So far, the data is promising. Scientists believe it is possible the geomechanical and biogeochemical conditions in the rift limit the loss and consumption of this naturally generated hydrogen, which could leave trapped hydrogen at an economically meaningful scale in the mid-continent subsurface.” Other subsurface rifts in France, Germany, Russia, and Africa could also produce hydrogen, according to Seunghee Kim, Charles J. Vranek Associate Professor of civil engineering. The university of Nebraska-Lincoln said hydrogen renews underground when water interacts with volcanic rock, unlike oil and gas.

Dutch researchers have developed a measurement method for low-level in-situ (semi)-continuous H2 emissions from industrial installations, using an active AirCore sampler and a GC-PDHID analysis system. “Our emission estimates indicate current loss rates up to 4.2% of the estimated production and storage in these facilities,” said the researchers in “First detection of industrial hydrogen emissions using high precision mobile measurements in ambient air,” which was recently published in Scientific Reports. “This is sufficiently large to urgently flag the need for monitoring and verification of H2 emissions for the purpose of understanding our climate change trajectory in the 21st century.” They applied their methodology, which analyzes the entire hydrogen value chain, at a chemical park in Groningen, the Netherlands, where several hydrogen production and storage facilities are concentrated. The loss is relative to the estimated daily production.

The Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) has announced a new request for ionformation (RFI) for potential clean hydrogen projects. “We are seeking innovative proposals to add to our portfolio that demonstrate excellence in hydrogen production, processing, delivery, storage, and/or end-use,” said in an emailed note the collaborative initiative between the US Department of Energy, private industry, state and local governments, academic institutions, technology partners, and non-profit organizations.  

The Italian government has said that the country expects to play a role in shipping hydrogen from outside Europe into the European Union. “We are in a crucial geographical location,” the country’s minister of the environment and energy security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, reportedly said during a recent conference in Venice. 

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