Techno-economic analysis of low-carbon hydrogen production pathways for decarbonizing steel and ammonia production
Evan Reznicek, Mariya Koleva, Jennifer King, Matthew Kotarbinski, Elenya Grant, Sanjana Vijayshankar, Kaitlin Brunik, Jared Thomas, Abhineet Gupta, Steven Hammond, V. K. Singh, Richard Tusing, Pingping Sun, Kyuha Lee, Amgad Elgowainy, Hanna Breunig, Fabian Rosner, João Onofre Pereira Pinto
Abstract
Low-carbon hydrogen can play a key role in decarbonizing steel and ammonia production. Here, we report a techno-economic and life-cycle emissions analysis of different hydrogen production routes for steelmaking via direct reduced iron-electric arc furnace and ammonia synthesis for five locations with estimated technological progress through 2035 and considering a range of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) tax credits. Our results show that these credits can make off-grid renewable-driven electrolytic hydrogen production competitive with fossil-based routes for decarbonizing steel and ammonia in several locations within the current decade and that off-grid electrolytic hydrogen production could potentially be cost competitive with fossil-based routes in Texas and Minnesota by 2035 even without incentives. Furthermore, with maximum IRA tax incentives, off-grid electrolytic hydrogen production is competitive with fossil-based hydrogen production routes with current technology costs. Strong renewable energy resources, access to low-cost hydrogen storage, and proximity of process feedstocks are all critical for enabling these decarbonization opportunities.