Masdar and EMSTEEL announce successful pilot project using green hydrogen to produce green steel

Masdar, the UAE’s clean energy powerhouse, and EMSTEEL, the UAE’s largest publicly listed steel and building materials company, have announced the successful 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, utilises green hydrogen to extract iron from iron ore, a key step in steelmaking. The pilot project is now fully operational and has successfully commenced the production of green steel.

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 were validated by Bureau Veritas, acting as the third-party assurance provider.

Steel production is a very important industry in the UAE. However, as it is carbon-intensive and hard to abate, the sector globally contributes between seven and eight per cent of worldwide carbon emissions. Decarbonising this industry is therefore essential to propelling the world towards a net-zero future.

Rising global demand for green steel presents huge growth potential for the UAE, as the country aspires to be a major green steel production hub. The use of sustainable building materials, including steel, is being promoted through the National Green Certificates Programme, launched by the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure in July 2024.

The partnership between Masdar and EMSTEEL has demonstrated the potential for green hydrogen to decarbonise the global steel value chain, whilst showing how clean energy and heavy industry partners in the UAE are collaborating and taking urgent action to accelerate the energy transition.

Masdar Chief Executive Officer, Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, said: “This project demonstrates world-class innovation as a result of our partnership with EMSTEEL to produce green steel utilising green hydrogen. Decarbonisation 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 decarbonisation efforts, and we are proud to be at the forefront of that endeavour.”

Eng. Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi, Group Chief Executive Officer of EMSTEEL, commented: “We are committed to propelling decarbonisation efforts in the sector, in support of the UAE’s Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative. Our efforts to date have been fruitful, with our current utilisation of clean energy sources rising above 80% in 2023. EMSTEEL is also the first steelmaker in the world to capture part of its CO₂ emissions, enabling us to operate with 45% less carbon intensity than the global average. Our partnership with Masdar will play a key role in continuing to build on our efforts to decarbonise this hard-to-abate sector and the downstream supply chain.”

The pilot project aligns with Abu Dhabi’s Low Carbon Hydrogen Policy, which promotes low-carbon hydrogen as a future clean energy source, constituting a significant milestone towards ensuring economic growth, sustainability, and energy security, and a strategic step towards a sustainable future. The Low Carbon Hydrogen Policy complements the UAE National Hydrogen Strategy, which seeks to establish the UAE as a leading global producer of low-carbon hydrogen by 2031.

Since its establishment in 2006, Masdar has been a key enabler of the UAE’s vision as a global leader in sustainability and climate action. The company has developed and partnered in projects in over 40 countries, with a mandate to increase its renewable energy portfolio capacity to 100 GW within a decade by 2030. It has set a target of 1 million tonnes per annum of green hydrogen or equivalent derivatives in the UAE and globally within a decade.

Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, EMSTEEL builds on a heritage spanning over a quarter of a century. The Group is committed to creating products, services, and solutions to build a better world, in addition to driving global sustainability efforts through promoting a low-carbon supply chain in collaboration with its partners across the ecosystem.