Steel Mills

Cliffs performs H2 injection trial at Indiana Harbor BF

January 26, 2024

Cleveland-Cliffs has successfully completed a hydrogen injection trial at its Indiana Harbor #7 blast furnace in East Chicago, Ind.

The Cleveland-based steelmaker said on Friday this marks the second Cliffs BF to use hydrogen as a “reductant fuel source” after a test at its Middletown, Ohio, works last May.

Cliffs noted that it recently completed the commissioning of a hydrogen pipeline at Indiana Harbor, which was used in the trial.

“Indiana Harbor #7 is the largest blast furnace in North America and we are proud of our ability to be ahead of the curve in using this cutting edge technology to decarbonize, while maintaining both our efficiency and the high standard of quality that comes with steel produced via the blast furnace route,” Lourenco Goncalves, Cliffs’ chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement.

Global industrial gases and engineering company Linde was a partner in the trial and Goncalves thanked the company for its contribution.

Ethan Bernard

Ethan Bernard is managing editor for Steel Market Update. He previously worked for American Metal Market as a copy editor in the New York office for two years, starting in 2008. Later, he copy edited AMM’s monthly magazine on a freelance basis from 2015 until 2017. With experience in financial copywriting and textbook publishing, he holds a BA in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley, and an MFA. in Creative Writing from New York University. He can be reached at ethan@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7871.