Producing steel has historically release large amounts of carbon emissions. For centuries, the industry has relied on coal to heat furnaces and refine ore, releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the air. A new project in Sweden is working on a more environmentally friendly approach.

In the town of Boden, a large project is underway to build Europe’s first greenfield steel mill in 50 years. Spanning 270 hectares, divided into a main area for iron and steelmaking and a separate 700-megawatt hydrogen plant, the site is designed to run on three connected steps: green hydrogen, green iron, and green steel.

The company aims to produce 5 million tons of green steel annually by 2030.

Making Clean, Green Steel

Photo: Stegra

Instead of burning coal, the new mill plans to use electricity from renewable sources and green hydrogen to run the entire steelmaking process.

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“By replacing coal with green hydrogen and electrifying the steelmaking process, we will be able to cut CO2 emissions by up to 95% compared to traditional steelmaking,” the company says. “Moving forward, we will continue to reduce emissions even more – getting closer and closer to zero – year by year.”

The entire setup relies on end-to-end digitalization to keep all three parts of the plant working together smoothly. It is a big shift for an industry that has mostly stuck to the same methods for decades.

Looking at the Site

Locals can actually see the construction happening in real time. The company built a lookout tower just north of the site, giving visitors a full view of the heavy machinery and rising infrastructure.

For everyone else, they put together an interactive digital model where people can click through the hydrogen, iron, and steel areas to see how the layout fits together.

Heavy industry has always been one of the hardest sectors to clean up, but projects like this show what the next generation of manufacturing might actually look like. According to the company, “We are creating sustainable change in heavy industry for generations to come. It all begins with our plant in Boden – our flagship.”