New Delhi [India], July 29:As the global steel sector scrambles to cut emissions, a new clean hydrogen project in Brazil may offer critical lessons for India, home to the world’s second-largest steel industry and one of its most carbon-intensive. This week, ArcelorMittal Brazil and U.S.-based Utility Global announced a collaboration to pilot a novel hydrogen production system at a blast furnace facility in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. The project, now entering its Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) phase, aims to produce up to 3 tons per day of clean hydrogen directly from steelmaking off-gases.

Why should India, and in particular, Tata Steel, pay attention? Because this model could hold the key to near-term decarbonization in developing economies with heavy industrial footprints, aging infrastructure, and limited access to affordable renewable electricity.

India’s Steel Sector: Big Ambitions, Big Emissions

India produced 140 million tons of crude steel in 2023, and the country is targeting 300 million tons by 2030 under its National Steel Policy. However, this growth comes with a carbon cost: the Indian steel sector currently accounts for approximately 12% of the nation’s total CO₂ emissions, according to the Ministry of Steel. Most of this comes from coal-based blast furnaces and direct reduced iron (DRI) production.

Tata Steel, India’s largest private steelmaker, has committed to reaching net zero by 2045 and has announced green steel pilots in both India and Europe. Yet the path to hydrogen-based steelmaking in India is fraught with obstacles: intermittent renewables, underdeveloped hydrogen infrastructure, and high costs for electrolysis-based hydrogen.

This is where the Brazil project offers a practical, and replicable, alternative.

Turning Emissions into Hydrogen

Utility Global’s H2Gen® system is a modular, electricity-free hydrogen generator that uses industrial waste gases (in this case, blast furnace off-gas) to produce hydrogen and a concentrated stream of CO₂. The hydrogen can be recirculated into the steelmaking process to displace natural gas or coal, while the CO₂ stream is primed for capture and storage.

This approach is particularly relevant for India, where retrofitting existing blast furnaces is more viable in the near term than building new hydrogen-ready DRI plants. By integrating hydrogen generation within the plant and using available waste gases as fuel, the need for large-scale hydrogen transport or green electricity is bypassed, solving two of India’s most pressing decarbonization hurdles.

Why Tata Steel Should Watch Closely

Tata Steel has been a vocal proponent of green hydrogen and recently announced a partnership with the Indian government to explore hydrogen injection in blast furnaces. However, most of its pilot projects involve imported or externally produced hydrogen—a method that is expensive and logistically complex in India’s current infrastructure environment.

Deploying a system like H2Gen® could allow Tata to generate hydrogen on-site, without drawing from the national grid or investing in massive renewable capacity. This would reduce both capital expenditure and the cost per kilogram of hydrogen, making early-stage decarbonization more commercially viable.

Further, Tata Steel operates major plants in Jamshedpur and Kalinganagar, both of which already have complex gas handling systems and access to skilled technical labor. These are the very types of facilities that could integrate a modular hydrogen system with minimal disruption.

Scaling a New Model for the Global South

India isn’t alone in facing these constraints. Other steel-producing nations in Asia, Latin America, and Africa are confronting the same question: how to decarbonize fast without disrupting production or incurring unaffordable costs.

This is where the ArcelorMittal/Utility Global collaboration becomes more than a pilot, it becomes a model. ArcelorMittal, which also has operations in India, is testing a system that transforms one of steelmaking’s biggest liabilities—off-gas emissions—into a low-carbon asset. For emerging economies with legacy infrastructure, that’s a powerful proposition.

If the Brazil deployment succeeds, it’s not hard to imagine Tata (or other Indian steelmakers) following suit with similar pilots. India has already committed over ₹19,000 crore (~$2.3 billion) under its National Green Hydrogen Mission, and early demonstrations like this could unlock further support.

A Blueprint, Not Just a Pilot

As India navigates its complex industrial decarbonization journey, it will need solutions that are flexible, fast, and financially feasible. The ArcelorMittal/Utility Global partnership may be happening in Brazil, but the blueprint they’re testing could be exactly what India needs to bridge ambition with action.