Smoltek is lead­ing the devel­op­ment of green hydro­gen process­es to enable “green steel” pro­duc­tion, address­ing the steel indus­try’s sig­nif­i­cant envi­ron­men­tal impact—accounting for approx­i­mate­ly 8% of glob­al ener­gy-relat­ed CO2 emis­sions accord­ing to the Inter­na­tion­al Ener­gy Agency. The com­pa­ny is col­lab­o­rat­ing with Chalmers Uni­ver­si­ty of Tech­nol­o­gy through a WISE-fund­ed research project to devel­op break­through process technology.

In an inter­view, Fabi­an Wenger, Head of Research and Devel­op­ment at Smoltek Hydro­gen, explains how their inno­va­tions focus on green electrolysis—splitting water into hydro­gen and oxy­gen using renew­able elec­tric­i­ty from solar or wind sources. The key chal­lenge involves cat­a­lysts that “kick­start” the reac­tion, tra­di­tion­al­ly using expen­sive and rare met­als like irid­i­um diox­ide and platinum.

Smoltek is devel­op­ing smart met­al com­bi­na­tions that can per­form equal­ly well at low­er costs with improved dura­bil­i­ty, address­ing the wear and expense issues of pre­cious met­als. This advance­ment is cru­cial for scal­ing green ener­gy solu­tions and enabling sus­tain­able steel production.

The next phase involves build­ing a strong val­ue chain between indus­try and research to trans­form research results into con­crete growth with­in elec­trol­y­sis tech­nol­o­gy and green indus­tri­al tran­si­tion, sup­port­ing a future where mate­ri­als are pro­duced using renew­able ener­gy and sus­tain­able mate­r­i­al flows.