Nippon Steel Produces 1,000t of DRI Using 100% Hydrogen

Nippon Steel has produced more than 1,000 tonnes of direct reduced iron using 100% hydrogen and lower-grade iron ore, marking an important pilot-scale step in the effort to cut emissions from ironmaking.

MONTREAL (SteelPrices): Nippon Steel has completed a pilot-scale test that could help solve one of the biggest technical problems facing lower-emissions steelmaking: how to make direct reduced iron using hydrogen without depending entirely on scarce high-grade iron ore.

The Japanese steelmaker said on November 4 that it produced more than 1,000 tonnes of direct reduced iron, or DRI, at its Hasaki Research & Development Center.

The test used hydrogen as 100% of the reducing agent and ran continuously for more than 300 hours.

The pilot shaft furnace is approximately 60 metres high and has a production capacity of about 1 tonne per hour. It began operating in March 2026.

What Exactly Did Nippon Steel Do?

To understand why the test matters, it helps to understand what happens before steel is made.

Iron ore contains iron combined with oxygen. Before that iron can be turned into steel, the oxygen has to be removed.

Traditional blast furnaces use coke made from coal to help remove that oxygen. The process works extremely well, but it also produces large amounts of carbon dioxide.

Direct reduced iron uses a different route. Iron ore is reduced in a separate furnace before the resulting iron is normally melted in an electric arc furnace.

Most commercial DRI plants today use natural gas. Nippon Steel's test instead used hydrogen as the reducing agent.

When hydrogen removes oxygen from iron ore, the reaction produces water rather than carbon dioxide from the reducing agent itself.

Why the Lower-Grade Iron Ore Matters

The hydrogen is only half of the story.

Commercial direct-reduction plants generally rely on high-grade iron ore with high iron content and relatively low levels of impurities.

That type of ore is limited in supply.

Nippon Steel instead used blast-furnace-grade pellets, which are lower grade than the direct-reduction-grade pellets normally used in commercial DRI production.

Using lower-grade ore is difficult because it can break down into fine particles during reduction. Those particles can interfere with the flow of gas through the furnace and make the reaction harder to control.

Nippon Steel said it was able to maintain stable production by using operating techniques designed to reduce this powdering problem.

Hydrogen Creates Its Own Technical Problem

Replacing natural gas with hydrogen is not as simple as changing the fuel supply.

Hydrogen-only reduction absorbs heat, which can cause the temperature inside the furnace to fall.

If the furnace becomes too cold, the reduction reaction becomes more difficult to maintain.

Nippon Steel said it used thermal compensation technology to maintain the required temperature during the test.

The company combined that temperature-control technology with operating methods designed to limit the breakdown of the lower-grade ore.

Together, those measures allowed the pilot furnace to operate continuously for more than 300 hours.

Why Steelmakers Are Interested in Hydrogen DRI

Ironmaking is the most carbon-intensive part of conventional steel production.

World Steel Association data show that steel production is responsible for roughly 7%–8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with most emissions associated with producing iron from ore.

That is why steelmakers around the world are testing alternatives to the traditional blast-furnace route.

Hydrogen-based DRI is one of those options.

About 100 million tonnes of DRI are currently produced worldwide each year, according to Nippon Steel, but commercial plants mainly use natural gas rather than pure hydrogen.

Japan's NEDO Green Innovation Fund is supporting development of hydrogen-based steelmaking technologies involving Nippon Steel, JFE Steel and the Japan Research and Development Center for Metals.

This Is Still a Pilot, Not a Commercial Steel Plant

The test is an important technical development, but there is still a large gap between a successful pilot furnace and commercial-scale steel production.

Nippon Steel said it will continue testing the technology and optimizing operating conditions.

From fiscal 2027, the company plans to work on scale-up technologies.

Its current goal is to establish implementation technology for hydrogen-based direct reduction around 2040.

That timeline is important. The November test demonstrates that the process can operate for an extended period at pilot scale, but it does not establish the cost, hydrogen availability, energy requirements or economics of running the technology at full industrial scale.

What Steel Buyers and Producers Should Watch Next

The next question is whether the technology can move from a pilot furnace producing about one tonne per hour to a much larger commercial plant without losing reliability or becoming prohibitively expensive.

Hydrogen supply will also matter. Producing low-emissions steel only delivers its full climate benefit when the hydrogen itself is produced with low-carbon energy.

Raw-material flexibility could be equally important.

If steelmakers can successfully use more abundant lower-grade iron ore in hydrogen-based direct-reduction plants, they would be less dependent on the limited supply of premium-grade ore normally required for DRI production.

That makes today's result relevant not only to steel producers, but also to iron ore miners, electric-arc-furnace operators, hydrogen suppliers and buyers trying to reduce the carbon footprint of their steel supply chains.

Sources: Nippon Steel Corporation; NEDO; World Steel Association.

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