Importing DRI Could Be an Answer to Europe’s Green Hydrogen Needs
10/18/2023 - In the years ahead, six Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries – Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Saudi Arabia — will likely be able to meet a significant portion of the European steel industry’s coming demand for green hydrogen.
But there’s just one problem. Getting it to Europe.
As RHI Magnesita MENA region technical director Karim Badr pointed out during AIST’s European Steel Forum, pipeline infrastructure between the two regions is lacking, and transporting hydrogen by ship is notoriously difficult.
The solution, he said, is to avoid the problem altogether.
Speaking during a panel discussion on European energy sources, Badr suggested that steel producers, either on their own or through consortiums, build direct reduction plants in those countries or North America and transport the offtake.
The countries have the resources for green direct reduced iron production, he said, as well as long-standing technical know-how.
It could be “a way-out route,” he said.
