Norsk Hydro (Hydro) is to drop investment in green hydrogen and batteries after citing challenging market conditions.
While the Norwegian company will continue to test green hydrogen technology at the Høyanger recycling unit for internal decarbonisation, it will focus more on low-carbon and recycled aluminium and renewable power generation under a new NOK6.5bn ‘improvement’ programme, it announced as part of its Capital Markets Day 2024.
Hydro’s Alumetal recycling plant in Kety, Poland, will increase the use of renewable energy to produce low-carbon, recycled aluminium products for the European green transition.
Long term, Hydro’s R&D focuses on CO2 free aluminium production and carbon capture, with the HalZero pilot on track for 2030.
The proprietary HalZero technology is based on converting alumina to aluminium chloride prior to electrolysis. Chlorine and carbon are kept in a closed loop, thus eliminating emissions of CO2 and emitting oxygen instead.
If successful, HalZero will fully decarbonise the smelting of aluminium by eliminating emissions from both electrolysis and anode baking, resulting in emission-free smelting technology. The ambition is to produce the first aluminium by 2025 and to reach industrial-scale pilot volumes by 2030.
Scaling up pilot testing will require significant investment and public-private partnerships. In 2023 the Norwegian state enterprise Enova granted NOK141m for the construction and operation of the test facility in Porsgrunn.
The decision to pull out of green hydrogen is another blow for the industrial sector, in a year which has been dogged by financing, regulatory and offtake challenges.
In June 2023, Hydro produced carbon-free green hydrogen, replacing natural gas as fuel for the recycling of aluminium, during a test at a casthouse in its Navarra extrusion plant.
At the time, it said the test demonstrated its commitment to decarbonisation and it endeavoured to be “a leading provider of industrial fuel switch solutions in green hydrogen”.
