Conducted under its IS2H4C project, the company swapped a conventional gas burner for a hydrogen burner in a ladle heating step at its Basauri steel plant.

Sidenor said the hydrogen burner achieved the same temperatures as the conventional process, demonstrating hydrogen’s technical viability in this application.

However, Sidenor is yet to announce a full-scale rollout of the technology.

Sidenor produces speciality steel at two main steelworks in Spain, located in Basauri and Azkoitia, with additional downstream and forging operations, including a plant in Reinosa.

The trial comes as analysts warn that large-scale green steel production remains more than a decade away without significantly cheaper hydrogen, reinforcing the role of incremental fuel-switching in hard-to-electrify steel processes.

A May report from IDTechEx said steelmakers require low-carbon hydrogen priced at around $2–3/kg for hydrogen-based steelmaking to be economically viable, well below today’s $4–8/kg for green hydrogen.