Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits using hydrogen-based steelmaking to help the (a) British steel industry to decarbonise and (b) UK to meet its target of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Decarbonising UK industry is a core part of the government’s ambitious plan for the green industrial revolution. The Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy[1], published on 17 March, commits government to work with the Steel Council to consider the implications of the recommendation of the Climate Change Committee to ‘set targets for ore-based steelmaking to reach near-zero emissions by 2035’. Hydrogen, electrification, and carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) are the main technological options being examined as part of this process. The industry decarbonisation pathways technical annex of the strategy (pg. 153-155) presents two possible options for the decarbonisation of the iron and steel industry:

• The first option shows fuel switching to hydrogen and electric arc furnace. This suggests abatement potential from hydrogen fuel switching of 3.9 MtCO2e and 3.5 MtCO2e of electric fuel switching by 2050.
• The second option shows the abatement potential of carbon capture utilisation and storage (abatement of 6.7 Mt CO2e).

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/industrial-decarbonisation-strategy