Tucked away in a quaint town south of Stockholm lies one of Ovako’s nine production facilities. Its Hofors site has its roots traced back to the mid-16th century and today serves as the company’s hub, with production in steel and billet rolling mills, and in tube and ring mills.

Now, the steel mill welcomes a new addition to its Hofors location as part of the company’s next steps in its decarbonisation journey: a hydrogen plant.

Indeed, Ovako’s new hydrogen plant in Hofors will be one of the first in the world to heat steel with hydrogen prior to rolling in an existing production environment. It is the company’s next major step towards carbon-neutral steel production by replacing liquified petroleum gas (LPG) with fossil-free hydrogen.

“We would like to show the world that you can actually heat steel without carbon dioxide, and that we are doing it now,” Mikael Persson, project manager at Ovako, told E&T. “The project will give other players working...