Nippon Steel tops 1,000 tonnes in hydrogen-only DRI trials using lower-grade ore

Nippon Steel said cumulative output from the trials has topped 1,000 tonnes, with more than 300 hours of continuous operation. The company said the work took place at its Hasaki Research and Development Center in a shaft-type test furnace about 60 metres tall.

What Nippon Steel reported

The furnace has a capacity of one tonne per hour and began operating in March 2026. Nippon Steel said the test used 100% hydrogen as the reducing agent.

Why lower-grade ore is the point

The trials used blast-furnace-grade iron ore pellets, not the higher-grade direct-reduction pellets that existing commercial furnaces take. Gasworld reported that hydrogen DRI processes have previously worked best with ore of around 67% iron content. Supplies of that high-grade material are limited, while lower-grade ore is produced in greater quantities.

At one tonne an hour, more than 300 hours of continuous operation would account for more than 300 tonnes, so the 1,000-tonne cumulative total reflects multiple runs. That is still small next to the roughly 100 million tonnes of DRI produced annually worldwide in commercial gas-based furnaces, Nippon Steel said.

The two problems the company says it solved

Reduction with hydrogen alone is an endothermic reaction, so it absorbs heat and can lower furnace temperatures. Stable operation therefore needs heat compensation. Lower-grade ore also tends to break into powder during reduction, impairing gas flow and making the reaction harder to control. Nippon Steel said it achieved stable output by combining heat-compensation technology suited to hydrogen reduction with operating techniques that suppress that breakdown.

The project is one of three technology programmes under Nippon Steel's Carbon Neutral Vision 2050, alongside high-grade steel production in large electric furnaces and hydrogen reduction in blast furnaces. The Green Innovation Fund of NEDO, Japan's public energy and industrial technology development agency, supports the work through a consortium of Nippon Steel, JFE Steel and the Japan Research and Development Center for Metals.

Why it matters

Gasworld also reported that steelmaking produces between 7% and 8% of global CO2 emissions and as much as 14% of Japan's. It said companies in the field suggest green hydrogen could remove more than 90% of the emissions of a coal-fired blast furnace.

What happens next

Nippon Steel said it will continue trials to establish the technology and optimise operating conditions. It plans to begin development work including scale-up technology in fiscal 2027, with the aim of establishing technology for commercial-scale equipment around 2040.