Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung (SZMF) operates one of its research sites on the premises of Huttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann in Duisburg-Huckingen. Products and processes related to steel are developed and tested here. The focus of the work is the manufacture of pipes and heavy plate in the Salzgitter Group. In addition to the Group companies, many other small and large customers and partners also rely on SZMF's almost 100 years of expertise and its research and development services.

On the occasion of the presentation of a newly planned hydrogen laboratory, Duisburg Mayor Soren Link, Mayor Beate Lieske and Deputy Andree Haack visited the SZMF.

dr Benedikt Ritterbach, Managing Director of SZMF, explained: 'Sustainability and climate protection are the greatest challenges of our time. Hydrogen and steel play very important roles in this. Hydrogen is needed to substitute coking coal and thus be able to produce steel in an even more sustainable and climate-friendly manner in the future. Conversely, suitable steel tubes and sheets are required to be able to transport and store hydrogen. We can do both and we will make our contribution: Salzgitter AG with its transformation program SALCOS ( SA lzgitter Low CO 2 - Steelmaking )as a pioneer in the production of particularly sustainable steels. And Salzgitter Mannesmann research, by developing and qualifying suitable products for the emerging hydrogen economy. The Mannesmann H2ready pipes are already finding a wide range of applications in the hydrogen economy.'

Mayor Soren Link emphasized: 'Duisburg is on the way to becoming the hydrogen capital. The new H 2 SteeLab laboratory building at Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung is another important building block for research into the new hydrogen technology and shows that Duisburg is becoming the focal point for the first applications of the new technology.'

At the Duisburg site, Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung bundles the Salzgitter Group's broad steel expertise for the hydrogen economy and at the same time supplements the diverse activities at the increasingly developing hydrogen site in Duisburg.

'There is another very positive effect: I am convinced that we can only keep our own jobs in the long term with climate-friendly steel production and ultimately also the many value chains for which steel, as the most versatile and important industrial construction material, forms the basis. Right now we are all learning very painfully how valuable it can be to keep important value chains in your own country and to be as independent as possible from others.', addeddr Matthias Frommert, Chairman of the General Works Council of SZMF .

'The planned laboratory building is to accommodate numerous test systems for examining steel samples in hydrogen and hydrogen-natural gas mixtures up to a pressure of 400 bar,' explained Dr. Juliane Mentz, responsible for materials technology at SZMF in Duisburg. And further: 'Commissioning is planned for summer 2023. Tests under compressed hydrogen represent a particularly high technical challenge. This applies both to the test systems and to the explosion-proof laboratory as a whole. So far, only a handful of laboratories in Europe and around the world have offered such tests.'

A quick and successful implementation of the project will benefit both the expansion of the technological leadership role of the Salzgitter Group and the Duisburg hydrogen location as a whole.

Head of Corporate Communications/Group

E: moellmann.t@salzgitter-ag.de

E: heidler.m@salzgitter-ag.de

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