In the final episode of Season One of our Green Hydrogen series, we’re looking at how Hydrogen might be useful to aid hard-to-abate industries such as Steel in achieving a zero-carbon future. 

Let’s get serious about carbon intensity for a minute: the steel industry produces approx 2.6 GIGATONS* of carbon emissions  annually, that’s over 7% of total  global emissions and it’s a product that is not optional in today’s world. If you’re having a hard time wrapping your head around that number, I give you a great example further down with a reference for further reading. 

For this final episode of the season, Joachim von Scheele, Global Director of Commercialization for leading gas retailer, Linde, has set his sights on decarbonizing Steel and other large industry emitters through energy efficiency and, yes, Green Hydrogen.  As a longtime Global leader for Linde, Joachim has spent his 20 year career living and working in India, China, and Europe where these hard-to-abate industries are critical parts of the economy and the world's construction process.  Today, he provides a crash-course in steel manufacturing and Hydrogen production, along with a vision for how green hydrogen could possibly be the answer to decarbonizing this energy intensive sector.  And we’re not just day-dreaming, here, Joachim gets calls daily from the industry leaders who are looking to transition to “green steel”.  

The demand has arrived, but who will meet it?  

Listen Now, on SunCast.  

*the prefix “giga” means 109, or one billion (1,000,000,000). Hence terms like “gigawatt” or “gigahertz.” Thus, a gigaton is equivalent to a billion metric tons.

So, 2.6 Gigatons = roughly 38 Billion Pounds (plus a little), therefore about 5.5 times the entire Human population in CO2 is being released into the atmosphere each year just by Steel alone. Let that sink in.Credit to Washinton Post  for this excellent article on the scale of Gigatons in Ice, CO2, etc from 2015 

This is the last episode of our Green Hydrogen Mini-Series.  You can hear all five episodes and learn more about our experts at www.mysuncast.com/hydrogen 

Episode 1 - Nexus of Deep Decarbonization & “The Inevitability of Hydrogen” with Sheldon Kimber, CEO Intersect Power

Episode 2 - The Green Hydrogen Opportunity with DNVs Global Energy Storage leader and Hydrogen Industry Veteran, Jason Goodhand

Episode 3 - The Role of the Large Energy Companies, partnership opportunities, existing infrastructure, and more from a top 10 Oil & Gas analyst, RBC’s Biraj Borkhataria

Episode 4 - Role of New Technologies - with Raffi Garbedin, Co-founder of Electric Hydrogen (formerly CTO of First Solar) 

Episode 5 - Decarbonizing Hard-to-abate Sectors Like Steel with Joachim Von Sheele, Global Director of Commercialization at the world’s largest industrial gas company, Linde, who is also building the world’s largest Electrolyzer.

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