Business Reporter
NAMIBIA will become the first country in the world to produce green iron, which is iron produced with zero emissions. The project is valued at 13 million euros.
This milestone was achieved as the country launched the HyIron Oshivela project in the Erongo region, where it aims to produce thousands of tons of green iron.
Speaking at the launch of the project, Christine //Hoebes, the Minister in the Presidency, explained that during his address at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this year, President Hage Geingob highlighted some of the key developments in Namibia that are set to make a significant contribution to the fight against climate change and securing a brighter future for our planet.
She added that HyIron Oshivela was one of those projects, mentioning that the project has since garnered wide international interest from governments to the media.
“The HyIron Oshivela project has the potential to contribute towards the decarbonization of the planet, while positioning Namibia at the forefront of the green industrial transition. In an effort to create a sustainable economy, our immediate objective as a government is to leverage the abundant natural resources to diversify our economy. In the context of the HyIon Oshivela, the goal is realized by the use of Namibian green hydrogen to add further value to our own iron ore and ultimately manufacture Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) right here in Namibia,” //Hoebes said.
She added that local value addition leads to the creation of jobs in the value chain and throughout the wider economy. “By enhancing our products through local processing, we can command higher market prices, increasing the economic benefits for Namibia. This is also the essence of our Local Content Policy, which ensures that the project not only attracts green technology businesses and enhances living standards but also meaningfully incorporates Namibian citizens and companies across the value chain,” the minister said.
Also speaking at the event, Johannes Michels, Managing Director of the HyIron Oshivela Project, highlighted the importance of iron as a vital material for development. “Today we use approximately 2 billion tons of iron per year globally. Until today, all iron is produced with the help of carbon, with which the iron ore is ‘reduced,’ meaning that the oxygen molecules are removed from the iron molecules. This process requires massive amounts of energy, which today exclusively comes from fossil fuels, especially coal,” Michels said.
He further explained that when the oxygen of the iron ore reacts with the carbon, enormous amounts of the climate change gas carbon dioxide are emitted. “For every ton of iron that we produce today, on average, 1.8 tons of carbon dioxide are emitted. For centuries, this process has not changed until now. Due to the large amounts of iron ore in Namibia, today we can launch the Oshivela project in which, for the first time, iron will be produced industrially without the use of energy from fossil fuels,” Michels noted.
He added that in the pilot phase, the company will employ 50 people while producing 15,000 tons of iron.
The project planners, including Michels, spent a year in Germany planning the power plant for the HyIron project. In Lingen, Germany, there is already a pilot project where the production process of green iron with iron ores from Namibia is being optimized.
“We believe such an exchange is the key ingredient for the realization of such technology and also the basis for a strong partnership and friendship between Namibia and partners worldwide,” Michels concluded.
Leave a Reply