By Lisa Steyn.
Sasol and ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) have joined forces to develop carbon capture technology to produce sustainable fuels and chemicals. The companies will also work together on plans to produce “green steel” (steel manufactured without fossil fuels) through green hydrogen and derivatives.
Under a joint development agreement, the companies will study two potential projects. The one is the Vaal carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) study to use renewable electricity and green hydrogen to convert captured carbon from AMSA’s Vanderbijlpark steel plant into sustainable fuels and chemicals.
The other is the Saldanha green hydrogen and derivatives study, which will explore the region’s potential as an export hub for green hydrogen and derivatives and green steel production.
In addition, Sasol signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Freeport Saldanha Industrial Development Zone to develop a green hydrogen hub and ecosystem within Saldanha Bay.
Sasol and AMSA are two of South Africa’s biggest industrial operators – and the country’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases after Eskom. They aim to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The two projects are critical to kick-start their decarbonisation journey for the companies, which operate in so-called “hard-to-abate” sectors, where either lack of technology or prohibitive costs are frustrating decarbonisation ambitions.
While carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) technology has been in development for decades, the high cost has rendered it commercially unviable. Data from the International Energy Agency, however, suggests there is momentum behind the technology, with more than 100 new CCUS facilities announced in 2021 alone.
Green hydrogen technologies also face cost – as well as transport – challenges.
Sasol and AMSA said the Vaal CCU study would explore using up to 1.5 million tonnes a year of unavoidable industrial CO2 captured from the Vanderbijlpark Works. The CO2 is envisaged to be transported to the Sasolburg and Ekandustria operating facilities where, together with green hydrogen, it will eventually replace natural gas as a feedstock to produce sustainable chemical products.
The initiatives have the potential for AMSA to become the first African green flat steel producer by using green hydrogen at its shuttered Saldanha Works, and to reduce the carbon footprint of its flagship Vanderbijlpark Works.
They also position Sasol as a leading contributor to the development of Southern Africa’s green hydrogen economy, with the opportunity to incubate local and export opportunities for green hydrogen and green hydrogen derivatives.
“These studies are anchored by the local need for green hydrogen and sustainable products, cementing Sasol as the leading contributor to the development of southern Africa’s green hydrogen economy,” Priscillah Mabelane, executive vice president for Sasol’s Energy Business, said in announcing the projects at the African Energy Week that kicked off in Cape Town on Tuesday.
AMSA CEO Kobus Verster said the projects create an exciting opportunity to contribute to the South African government’s aspirations to transition to a green economy.
“Just as importantly, by maximising the utilisation of our installed assets, we will also be stimulating economic growth in our host communities,” he said.