POSCO Opens Hydrogen Reduction Steelmaking Development Center... Kim Hee Appointed Head of Carbon Neutrality Strategy Office

Integration of Research, Operations, Equipment, Engineering, and Construction Experts
Completion Target for 300,000-ton Annual Test Facility by 2027
Carbon Neutrality Organization Upgraded... First Female Engineer Appointed as Executive

POSCO has opened a Hydrogen Reduction Steelmaking Development Center at the Pohang Steelworks and expanded and reorganized its carbon neutrality organization. The development center, which opened on the 26th, plans to play a key role in establishing pilot facilities, the preliminary step toward realizing POSCO's proprietary hydrogen reduction steelmaking process, ‘HyREX’.

The Hydrogen Reduction Steelmaking Development Center houses the overall department ‘HyREX Promotion Team’, the ‘Investment Engineering Office’ responsible for managing investment projects, the research and development department ‘Low Carbon Steelmaking Research Institute’, and the design team ‘POSCO E&C’, integrating the entire process from technology research to facility construction and pilot operation.

Recently, hydrogen reduction steelmaking technology has been recognized as a national strategic technology due to its strategic importance for national security and its impact on the overall national economy. POSCO’s Hydrogen Reduction Steelmaking Development Center plans to complete a HyREX pilot facility with an annual capacity of 300,000 tons by 2027 and verify the commercialization potential of HyREX technology.

At the opening ceremony of the Hydrogen Reduction Steelmaking Development Center, CEO Lee Si-woo encouraged, “Let POSCO become the First Mover in the new iron age by developing hydrogen reduction steelmaking technology that uses hydrogen instead of carbon. Based on the experience of commercializing the FINEX fluidized bed and developing SNNC electric melting furnace technology, I hope you will successfully implement HyREX technology and take on the new challenge as the first new economic national treasure for carbon neutrality.”

The economic national treasure is an intangible or tangible economic and industrial heritage that has made a decisive contribution to the development of the Korean economy. The No. 1 blast furnace at Pohang Steelworks was selected as Economic National Treasure No. 1 in 2011 in recognition of its contribution to enhancing national industrial competitiveness by supplying materials to Korean industries such as shipbuilding, automobiles, and home appliances.

POSCO has upgraded the carbon neutrality strategy team, which was responsible for planning and establishing the 2050 carbon neutrality strategy, to a division-level unit and appointed Kim Hee, the first female engineer executive, as head of the Carbon Neutrality Strategy Office.

To ensure the stable completion and operation of the electric furnace to be newly established at the Gwangyang Steelworks, POSCO is actively promoting the realization of the carbon neutrality roadmap by expanding and reorganizing the Electric Furnace Project Promotion Team.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.