Tata Steel Ltd has taken a major step towards reducing its carbon emissions by launching a new hydrogen gas trial in the blast furnace at its flagship plant in Jamshedpur. The trial involves injecting hydrogen gas into the blast furnace to reduce the use of metallurgical coke, thereby reducing carbon emissions. The company has committed to net zero by 2045 and hopes the trial will reduce its coke rate by 10%.

The Indian steelworks company has announced the start of a test using H2 in its blast furnace.

Tata Steel Ltd has announced that it has launched a new hydrogen gas injection trial in the blast furnace at its flagship plant in a move that will help to reduce the use of metallurgical coke and simultaneously slash carbon emissions.

The company’s plant in Jamshedpur is the first to trial the H2 injection, which it began on Sunday.

The hydrogen gas trial started last weekend and is using 40 percent of the injection systems at the Jamshedpur plant, said a statement from the company.

“This is the first time in the world that such a large quantity of hydrogen gas is being continuously injected in a blast furnace,” said Tata Steel in a statement. The company has committed to net zero by 2045.

The trial is expected to continue until today or tomorrow on a continuous basis. If successful and implemented more broadly, it has the potential to reduce its coke rate by 10 percent. This would result in a carbon dioxide emission reduction of between 7 percent and 10 percent per ton of crude steel produced by the company.

The hydrogen gas trial is intended to offer insight into using greener fuel injectants in blast furnaces.

The company is using this trial period to provide it with insight into the way it can use H2 and other clean fuel injectants for the operation of its blast furnaces.

The goal is to identify viable methods of reducing its fossil fuel consumption for steel production. At the same time, this effort will help the company to decarbonize.

Lower CO2 Emissions

They are hoping that this will be the first step into larger tests of greener fuel injectants into its blast furnaces to allow it to reduce the carbon emissions they produce through their operations.

The company chose to test hydrogen gas as India has established H2 consumption targets for a number of its heavy industries, including steel. The goal of that strategy is to help boost the demand for H2, which it intends to produce locally. The country’s goal is to achieve net zero carbon by 2070.