Cleveland-Cliffs successfully completed a hydrogen injection trial at its Indiana Harbor #7 blast furnace, the largest blast furnace in North America, with a production capacity of 5.5 million tons of iron a year.

This represents the second Cleveland-Cliffs blast furnace to utilize hydrogen as a reductant and fuel source, following the successful trial at Middletown Works in May of 2023.

Indiana Harbor #7 is among the largest blast furnaces in the entire world, both in size and production capacity. IH#7 also compares favorably against similar equipment in Japan, Korea, China or Europe, for its technological capability to support the production of high-end steels, including highly specified automotive feedstock.

Cliffs recently completed the commissioning of the hydrogen pipeline at Indiana Harbor, which was used for this trial. This successful commissioning marks another significant achievement toward Cliffs’ future GHG reduction efforts, completing the pipeline in advance of schedule, below budget and without incident. Cliffs' hydrogen gas supplier, Linde, was a critical partner in the successful execution of this major trial.

As the American iron and steel leader, we are proud that we are ahead of the rest of the world in using the technologies that make our blast furnace steel the cleanest in the world, including using iron ore pellets, natural gas injection, HBI, and now hydrogen.

—Lourenco Goncalves, Cliffs’ Chairman, President and CEO

Cleveland-Cliffs is the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America. Founded in 1847 as a mine operator, Cliffs also is the largest manufacturer of iron ore pellets in North America. The company is vertically integrated from mined raw materials, direct reduced iron, and ferrous scrap to primary steelmaking and downstream finishing, stamping, tooling, and tubing. Cleveland-Cliffs is the largest supplier of steel to the automotive industry in North America and serves a diverse range of other markets due to its comprehensive offering of flat-rolled steel products.

The Indiana Harbor works was established by Inland Steel in 1901. Inland was acquitred by Ipsat in 1998; Ispat became Mittal Steel in 2004 and then ArcelorMittal in 2006. In 2020, Cleveland-Cliffs acquired most of ArcelorMittal USA. [Green Car Congress’s editor worked at the Indiana Harbor works (#4 BOF) when it was Inland Steel.]