5.18 New industrial consortium, GravitHy, aims for market leadership in green iron and steel

A company composed of EIT InnoEnergy, Engie New Ventures, Plug, FORVIA, GROUPE IDEC through GROUPE IDEC INVEST INNOVATION and Primetals Technologies, in June 2022 launched GravitHy – tipped to be a future market leader in green iron. The sustainable iron company will support the growing demand for zero carbon steel, whilst contributing to Europe’s “Fit for 55” package ambitions to decarbonise hard-to-abate industries.

The project, with an investment budget of €2.2 billion at commissioning, will build its first plant in Fos sur Mer, Southern France, with construction commencing in 2024. The plant is expected to be operational by 2027, subject to regulatory approvals. GravitHy has an annual production target of two million tons of direct reduced iron (DRI) and aims to create over 3,000 direct and indirect jobs for the region.

The steel sector is responsible for eight percent of global energy demand and seven percent of energy sector CO2 emissions (including process emissions) annually - one of the largest carbon-emitting industries. GravitHy supports the emissions reduction of this industry by generating and using green and low-carbon hydrogen to produce DRI. The DRI will be used either on-site as a feedstock for green steel or traded globally under the form of hot-briquetted iron (HBI). This directly contributes to the decarbonisation of the hard-toabate value chain of steelmaking and supports the EU’s ambition of carbon neutrality by 2050.

GravitHy

The roadmap for the mining and metallurgy sector proposed by the French government sets the ambition of reducing CO2 emissions by 35% by 2030 from the integrated steel industry compared to 2015 emissions. Achieving this goal requires the rapid scaling up of innovative, lower-emission solutions. GravitHy will play a central role in achieving these goals.

gravithy.eu