ArcelorMittal has launched a new steel for the construction of hydrogen pipelines to support the roll-out of hydrogen gas infrastructure. All grades in the new HyMatch product family feature fine and homogeneous microstructure and good cleanliness, resulting in low risk of hydrogen embrittlement.
The new development fits in with the company’s research and development efforts focused on providing higher-value products that align with customer needs such as developing steel grades to withstand high-pressure transportation of pure hydrogen. The European Union has ambitious production targets for renewable hydrogen, with a target of producing 10 million tons by 2030. Transporting hydrogen presents unique challenges for pipe manufacturers.
Research programs for the use of steel in the hydrogen infrastructure are underway in a number of ArcelorMittal production sites including in Fos-sur-Mer, France and Bremen, Germany and laboratories including one in Gent, Belgium. Production in Fos and Bremen offers proximity to pipe manufacturers based in the Mediterranean countries and the North Sea region. Also, ArcelorMittal is improving the performance of its hydrogen-focused steel offer through continuous investments in internal research and development efforts, and active participation in international joint industrial projects such as DNV H2Pipes JIP, ARCOR MRC13, EWI New H2 pipes JIP and European funded projects such as SafeH2pipe, HyWay, PilgrHYm.
HyMatch steels can be purchased alongside the company’s XCarb steel certificates which allow customers to report an equivalent reduction in their Scope 3 emissions. The certificates represent the additional CO2 emissions reductions that ArcelorMittal has achieved from third-party audited CO2 abatement projects in its steel production plants.
“We are proud to announce the launch of HyMatch, which presents our customers with the family of steel grades available for use in the construction of hydrogen-ready pipelines. While we have been producing line pipe steel for many decades, the new challenge the energy transition brings to pipelines is to safely transport H2 and CO2. We are therefore using our R&D and engineering expertise to develop the steel grades needed in these new applications and are excited to be working with a number of different partners to trial our newest steel grades for the planned hydrogen pipelines,” said Laurent Plasman, CMO Industry, ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products.
