Prospect of green hydrogen in Malaysian iron and steel industry: Techno-economic assessment and energy modelling using PyPSA-Earth

Soh Mian Yu, Shen Yuong Wong, Ekaterina Fedotova, Muhammad Shakeel Ahmad, Davide Fioriti and Nasrudin Abd Rahim

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2025, vol. 216, issue C

Abstract: The iron and steel sector stands as a significant contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and highly challenging for deep decarbonization. Although green hydrogen and renewable energy emerge as a promising solution, comprehensive infrastructure and system analyses are required to evaluate the feasibility. This study proposes a methodology to assess green hydrogen deployment for both primary (hydrogen as a reducing agent) and secondary (hydrogen as a combustion fuel) iron and steel production in Malaysia. PyPSA-Earth energy modeling tool has been employed to estimate the solar potential of Malaysia and the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). With an investment cost of $847.44/kW and an LCOE of RM22.5–26.6/kWe. The study compares centralized and decentralized hydrogen generation scenarios. The assessment suggested that full hydrogen adoption requires 38–39 TWh/year of renewable electricity which translates to 758.85 thousand tonnes of hydrogen annually. The estimated cost of solar farms, electrolyzers, and hydrogen transportation totals $63–64 billion for 100 % decarbonization and $36–37 billion for the primary sector alone (excluding retrofitting cost). Infrastructure costs in a decentralized scenario amount to $22–23 billion for both sectors and $12–13 billion for the primary sector alone. This comprehensive analysis provides valuable insights into the preliminary cost estimations in transformation of Malaysia's iron and steel industry into a more sustainable sector, and can be scaled up to any region worldwide.

Keywords: Green hydrogen; Iron and steel sector; PyPSA-earth; Energy modelling; Solar energy; Renewable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032125003387
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:216:y:2025:i:c:s1364032125003387

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2025.115665

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().