South Korea’s POSCO is embarking on commercial technology validation of HyREX, its independently developed hydrogen-based steelmaking process, in partnership with BHP, Australia’s largest mining company. This marks a turning point as the relationship between the two companies expands beyond iron ore supply into research and development and low-carbon supply chains.<\/p>\n
POSCO announced on the 3rd that it signed a “HyREX Collaboration Agreement” with BHP at Cheongsongdae in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. Under the agreement, POSCO plans to test the performance and stability of HyREX technology under various raw material conditions using iron ore supplied by BHP.<\/p>\n
HyREX is POSCO’s proprietary process that uses hydrogen instead of coal\u2014a fossil fuel\u2014as the reducing agent to produce molten iron without carbon dioxide emissions. POSCO intends to verify that the process operates stably under actual raw material environments, test process performance variations based on iron ore characteristics and quality, and derive optimal blending conditions suitable for commercial facilities.<\/p>\n
Through this collaboration, BHP will confirm the applicability of its iron ore in next-generation low-carbon steelmaking processes. The two companies agreed to share raw material technology know-how required for hydrogen-based steelmaking and jointly explore ways to reduce Scope 3 emissions\u2014indirect greenhouse gas emissions generated during raw material mining and supply.<\/p>\n
This agreement is a follow-up to the memorandum of understanding signed last October in the presence of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and POSCO Group Chairman Chang In-hwa. Following its 2024 technology cooperation agreement with Primetals, an equipment and engineering company, POSCO has now expanded its partnership to include BHP as a raw material supplier, building out the technology and raw material supply chain for HyREX commercialization.<\/p>\n
“This partnership holds great significance in that a steelmaker and a global raw materials company are preparing together for the future of low-carbon steelmaking,” said Eom Ki-keun, head of POSCO’s Technical Research Laboratories, at the signing ceremony. “Starting with BHP, we will expand cooperation with global raw material suppliers and accelerate the development of low-carbon steelmaking technology.”<\/p>\n
Ben Ellis, BHP’s Vice President of Marketing and Sustainability, said, “This project is an extension of the long-standing innovative steelmaking technology collaboration with POSCO.” He added, “We believe BHP can play an important role in advancing new technologies and pathways that support our customers’ steelmaking process decarbonization, and through this, we will contribute to ensuring Australian iron ore can be utilized in low-carbon steelmaking technologies.”<\/p>\n
It is also noteworthy that bilateral cooperation has expanded beyond resource trade into research and development. This is regarded as a representative achievement of POSCO’s open collaboration strategy.<\/p>\n
POSCO is pursuing a phased roadmap for HyREX commercialization. The raw material validation collaboration with BHP is a key step in confirming the suitability of raw materials to be used in actual commercial facilities alongside technology development, and is expected to serve as an important foundation for securing competitiveness in low-carbon steelmaking technology in the global steel market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Korea’s POSCO is embarking on commercial technology validation of HyREX, its independently developed hydrogen-based steelmaking process, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[380],"tags":[60177,72039,71878,26338,72038,31628,3571,442,72040,42967],"class_list":["post-141893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-posco","tag-anthony-albanese","tag-ben-ellis","tag-bhp","tag-chang-in-hwa","tag-eom-ki-keun","tag-hydrogen-based-steelmaking","tag-hyrex","tag-posco","tag-primetals","tag-scope-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}