Namibia’s HyIron achieves world’s first zero-emission iron breakthrough

In a world hungry for sustainable solutions, Namibia’s HyIron has fired up a game-changer — producing “green hydrogen” and using it to refine iron ore. The Oshivela pilot project, near Arandis in the Erongo region, is not only a first for Namibia but a world first in carbon-free iron production.

With a solar-powered facility and cutting-edge hydrogen technology, HyIron is setting the stage for a revolution in the steel industry. The project is the first on the planet to use green hydrogen for processing iron oxide to produce direct reduced iron ore (DRI), a crucial component in sustainable steel production.

The Oshivela project on the Bloemhof farm is supported by €13m from the German federal ministry for economic affairs & climate action. HyIron is a consortium of German companies with a Namibian partner, HyIron Green Technologies.

Construction of the facility began in 2024. Within six months, HyIron had successfully installed 44,000 solar panels across 25ha, capable of generating 25MW of renewable energy. The facility only operates during the daytime, supported by the 25MW solar energy farm and 13.4MW of battery storage capacity.

GEiSt (German for “green iron for the steel industry”) has piloted the technology in Lingen, Germany, in co-operation with RWE (a multinational energy company) and Benteler (a German steel company).

The Oshivela project uses the technology on an industrial scale. With an initial production capacity of 15,000t annually, the plant demonstrates that large-scale production of green iron is technically achievable and can be economically viable.

The modular construction model enables easy scalability in future production.

“The primary aim of the pilot plant,” says HyIron’s Namibian CEO and co-founder Johannes Michels, “is to enhance the process and evaluate different iron ores while refining the products used across the value chain. Its peak production capability is 5,000kg an hour.

The company intends to increase production to 25,000kg an hour by the end of 2027, while extending the production period to 24/7. It is initiating a comparable project in Australia, and is also evaluating opportunities in Angola and Brazil, along with up to four more sites in Namibia.

The company’s Oshivela plant produces hydrogen using a 12MW electrolyser unit supplied by China’s Peric Hydrogen Systems. The electrolyser, which generates green hydrogen, is the largest of its kind in Southern Africa. It operates within a smart microgrid, “which means there is no grid connection and the production is aligned with the available stored or generated renewable energy,” Michels says.

The plant, powered entirely by solar energy, is expected to begin production of DRI by mid-April. It aims for an initial output of 15,000t a year, targeting 2Mt by 2030.

HyIron-Oshivela has secured its first offtake agreement to supply a large part of its first-stage production to German steelmaker Benteler, which has the option to also buy part of the phase 2 product.

The initial phase required an investment of €30m, of which more than 40% took the form of grants from the German government. The rest was mustered through private investment from the company’s founders.

HyIron expects to begin the second phase of development at the end of this year. This phase aims to greatly enhance solar power capacity and will need an investment of €230m. “The funds for this will come from equity investors and debt funders,” says Michels.

The third phase is expected to start in 2027 and aims to boost capacity by a factor of 10 once more. This will need additional investment of €2.3bn. By 2030, HyIron aims to produce 2Mt of DRI per year.

“HyIron’s DRI manufacturing method is completely free of carbon emissions since it uses hydrogen as its energy source. The water used in this process is endlessly recycled, ensuring that no water sources are being exhausted,” Michels says.

James Mnyupe, Namibia’s green hydrogen commissioner, says this is a significant milestone. “While Namibia has significant natural capacity to produce hydrogen at a low cost, the government is not solely focused on marketing hydrogen itself. Instead, we are promoting a stable and conducive environment, rich in the resources needed for cost-effective hydrogen production.

“We aim to establish sectoral legislation and a favourable fiscal framework that will enable the use of hydrogen for industrialisation in Namibia. This will allow us to produce a variety of goods with low-carbon content for international trade.

“Therefore, our focus is not just on hydrogen production but on the development of sustainable industries in Namibia. And HyIron is a case in point.”

Central to this project is HyIron technology, an innovative process to reduce iron ore in a rotary kiln with the help of green hydrogen. It is therefore entirely carbon neutral.

Says Michels: “Every ton of iron produced this way replaces 1.8t of carbon dioxide in the traditional process. Net-zero industrial manufacturing of iron is, already today, economically competitive.”

The most energy-intensive part of iron production is the reduction process, in which iron ore is reduced, losing its oxygen content. Every year, about 1.9-billion tons of iron are produced globally. Two-thirds of that comes from primary production, the extraction of iron ore, and one-third is from recycled materials.

Iron production now relies entirely on fossil fuels. As a result, the iron industry accounts for about 8% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, making it one of the most significant drivers of climate change. The demand for iron is projected to increase to 2.2-billion tons per year by 2030, implying an annual increase of 50Mt.

Michels explains the technical process underlying production: “Iron ore is an oxide that needs to be reduced by separating it from its oxygen content before it is further manufactured into steel or cast iron. For this process, a reduction agent is required which draws the oxygen from the iron ore.

“Fossil fuels such as coking coals are the most commonly used reduction agents. At HyIron, we replace these with green hydrogen to produce DRI, which is then turned into hot or cold briquetted iron — all of this with zero emissions.”

The product can then be used directly in foundries or steel factories to find its way into daily life as steel or cast iron.

Of course, for solar power to be economically viable, such plants need to be guaranteed extended periods of sunshine. According to a recent report by the International Energy Agency, solar photovoltaic systems in Namibia can generate twice as much electricity as comparable systems in central Europe.

The opportunities for the exploitation of solar power are also available for South Africa, acknowledged to be one of the most sun-rich countries in the world.

According to the World Data Centre for Meteorology, the sunniest place in the world from November to February is the Upington district in the Northern Cape , with a peak of 367 hours a month and an average of nearly 12 hours a day. Over a full 12 months, Keetmanshoop in Namibia is globally the sixth most sunny location (after Yuma and Phoenix in Arizona, two towns in Egypt and one in Chile).