The steel industry’s transition to low-carbon intensity production will total hundreds of billions of dollars in investment over the next few decades and will have far-reaching impacts on the costs, industry dynamics, and business opportunities in metallurgy. This report explores the steel industry’s path to net zero with a focus on manufacturing cost and carbon intensity of green reducing agents used with direct reduced iron technology, benchmarked against conventional alternatives.

The use of liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC) is an alternative to transporting hydrogen without the need for pipeline infrastructure or hydrogen liquefaction. Instead, organic materials are hydrogenated at the hydrogen production source, transported to their destination, and dehydrogenated to release the hydrogen for use. The bulk transportation of organic liquids is commonplace, relatively low cost, and well established, thus simplifying the movement of hydrogen via LOHC. With the growing demand for green hydrogen to support decarbonization efforts worldwide, LOHC is emerging as a practical means of transporting hydrogen from production sites to consumption sites. This report provides an overview of LOHC technologies. The report also includes a technology readiness level (TRL) summary of LOHC options, carbon intensity analysis, and discussion related to the cost of transporting hydrogen for various LOHC types. Comparisons with other hydrogen transportation options such as liquefied hydrogen and ammonia are also presented.

The purpose of this report is to analyze developing technologies for the production of biopolyols. Technical and economic aspects of producing biopolyols are explored in detail including cost of production models for key technologies. Production capacity developments, drivers for development, and strategies to increase biorenewable content are also explored.

This report focuses on perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA) proton exchange membranes (PEM) commercial technologies, process economics in the US, Western Europe, and China for those homogeneous, reinforced and catalyst-coated membranes for the first quarter of 2023 as well as global production capacity. These are crucial to green hydrogen production (i.e., hydrogen made from renewable power via electrolysis). NexantECA also provided a high-level analysis of the business and strategic considerations as well as the technology availability from the perspective of a company entering or expanding into the PFSA PEM market.