Russian steelmakers Severstal and Evraz have signed agreements with Russia’s leading oil producer Gazprom Neft on developing technologies to produce, transport, store and use hydrogen.

As part of the agreements, the three companies intend to jointly pursue and develop opportunities and technologies for capturing and utilising carbon dioxide, as well as using hydrogen in metallurgical production and developing materials for its transportation and storage.

They may also jointly implement technological decarbonization projects. This could include altering production processes using hydrocarbon fuel to use methane-hydrogen mixtures instead, Kallanish notes.

“Technologies and projects for the capture and disposal of CO2 and the production of hydrogen will continue to grow rapidly in Russia and globally over the next decade, and this will open up a great opportunity for us to capitalize on, and could even provide additional income for our business,” says Severstal ceo Alexander Shevelev. “We are delighted that our long-standing strategic partner Gazprom Neft shares our focus on hydrogen and realises its potential for its use in the raw materials market of the future.”

In 2021, Severstal established a corporate division focused on the use of hydrogen and developing innovative decarbonisation projects.

Evraz will assess the feasibility of CO2 entrapment with subsequent disposal/utilisation and the transfer of the company’s steelmaking facilities from hydrocarbons to methane-hydrogen fuels to reduce gas emissions. Hydrogen is viewed by the company as a high-potential green energy source.

“I am positive that CO2 entrapment, disposal and utilisation technologies, as well as the use of hydrogen as energy source, have a huge potential for our coal and steelmaking assets," says Evraz senior vice president Aleksey Ivanov.

“We routinely dispose of CO2 by pumping it back into oil and gas reservoirs as part of our operations; we have accumulated significant experience of such projects and we are ready to share this expertise with our partners and the market at large,” notes Gazprom Neft’s deputy chairman of the management board Vadim Yakovlev. “We want to pool our competencies with steelmakers to develop green industrial technologies.”