Posted on 04 Aug 2026
The Japanese steelmaker JFE Steel has announced that it has successfully produced a prototype of direct reduced iron (DRI) using ‘green’ hydrogen for the first time in the country. This was reported by Global Hydrogen Review.
This achievement was part of a project funded by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO).
A pilot plant with a capacity of 15 kg per hour at JFE Steel’s East Japan Works in Chiba Prefecture produced approximately one metric tonne of metal. The process utilised ‘green’ hydrogen produced by a 1.5 MW Yamanashi electrolyser. The hydrogen was transported by road tanker, with the trials taking place from 29 June to 1 July.
The steel industry is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in Japan’s industrial sector, accounting for approximately 14 per cent of total emissions. Nippon Steel Corporation, JFE Steel Corporation, Kobe Steel and the Japan Research Centre for Metallurgy (JRCM) formed the Hydrogen Steel Production Consortium in 2022 and are working to develop the relevant technologies as part of the NEDO project to develop technologies for building a hydrogen society.
It should be noted that in the spring of 2026, the South Korean authorities finally approved the site for POSCO’s project to build a hydrogen steel complex in Pohang. The initiative involves the launch of a HyREX pilot plant with a capacity of 300,000 tonnes per year by 2028.
Source:GMK Center
