A federal grant “of up to $500 million” was awarded to the Middletown Works steel plant “to replace its coal-burning blast furnace with a hybrid unit that burns hydrogen and natural gas” in a project that “is expected to create 1,200 construction jobs and dramatically reduce carbon emissions,” WCPO.com reports. Cleveland Cliffs, which owns the plant, is “negotiating terms of the grant with the U.S. Department of Energy.” The Hydrogen-Ready Direct Reduced Iron plant “is expected to create 170 new jobs and retain 2,500 when it opens in 2028,” according to the article. The new plant will generate “annual cost savings of $450 million for the Middletown plant” and “eliminate one of Ohio’s biggest emitters of particulate matter, or soot, according to Industrious Labs, an environmental research and advocacy firm.”
The $8 billion Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs Program “aims to establish up to ten regional ecosystems that promote increased production and use of hydrogen in carbon-intensive industries like automotive, steel and cement.” U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said, “[t]hey will be producing hydrogen in Ohio for off-take to places like this. And that is a whole series of jobs. That’s an economic cluster around the creation of clean hydrogen.” For more, read the full article.
