People are travelling further and more frequently than ever before. At the same time, there is a growing need and awareness to reduce energy consumption and transport emissions. Tata Steel is therefore working in close cooperation with customers and partners to bring new, fast and energy-efficient mobility concepts to life. One of those technologies is Hardt Hyperloop, a high-speed, sustainable transportation system for people and goods, which Tata Steel has been supporting since its first stages.

Steel is the essential material needed to build strong, lightweight tubes for the hyperloop that can withstand an internal low air pressure with sufficient rigidity. Therefore, Tata Steel joined forces with steelmaker POSCO from Korea in 2020 to work on the development of high-quality steel grades customised for this very purpose. The ultimate goal is to achieve a 50% weight reduction compared to a tube with conventional technology. This is done by developing new steel qualities for spirally welded pipes, but also by creating completely new pipe designs. 

In July 2022, Tata Steel announced the delivery of the first batch of a new steel product tailor-made for the hyperloop. Today, the steel manufacturer is proud to confirm Hardt Hyperloop as a customer for Zeremis Carbon Lite. The first tubes that were made using the certified low CO₂ steel will now be field tested in the European Hyperloop Center in Groningen, the Netherlands. The two companies met at InnoTrans 2022 in Berlin, the world’s leading trade fair for transport technology, to sign the official supply agreement. In a festive ceremony Huib Simon, Head of Marketing Engineering Sector at Tata Steel Nederland, symbolically handed the world’s first hyperloop steel grade to Mars Geuze, CCO of Hardt. 

“Today marks an important milestone on our journey towards a clean, green and circular future. Tata Steel has been working for years to reduce its own CO₂ emissions, both during the production process and when it comes to the steel products themselves. At the same time, we have supported Hardt Hyperloop from the very beginning sharing our high-tech innovation skills and materials expertise. Those two actions on the road to energy transition fit together perfectly. The hyperloop technology is more environmentally friendly than flying or driving, as it requires much less energy and thus almost no CO₂ per kilometre travelled. Now, if you combine that with our new low-CO2 offering Zeremis Carbon Lite, we move another step closer to our own ambition of becoming a more sustainable steel producer and our joint goal of paving the way to a more sustainable world”, says Huib Simon, Head of Marketing at Tata Steel Engineering.

“We strongly believe that hyperloop is the future of sustainable travel. It is a new era of mobility, and our ambition is to realise a 100,000 kilometre hyperloop network by 2050. Hyperloop uses 10 times less energy than road transportation or aviation, and the shift to this technology will allow us to save over 1 billion tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually by that time. Therefore, it felt only natural to also use steel grades with a reduced carbon footprint without having to compromise on quality, strength, or lightness. With Tata Steel we have a trusted and reliable partner by our side, who delivers exactly that, and who has been with us from the moment we entered the market. And today, we are very happy to expand this cooperation even further”, says Mars Geuze, CCO of Hardt.

Yet, with the launch of Zeremis Carbon Lite, Tata Steel’s journey to a clean, green and circular future is far from over. When creating products and services, stagnation is never an option. Tata Steel is continuously improving its product lines to make them match or even exceed current requirements. In order to reduce the emissions of steel production on a large scale, the company has therefore committed to switch to green hydrogen-based steelmaking. Tata Steel targets a CO₂ emission reduction of 35% - 40% by 2030, when it commissions its first DRI installation and to emit 75% less CO₂ around 2035. That is when the company will transition to a producer of large quantities of high-quality green steel. The ultimate goal is to become a CO₂ neutral steel maker by 2045.”

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About Tata Steel’s European operations
Tata Steel is one of Europe's leading steel producers, with steelmaking in the Netherlands and the UK, and manufacturing plants across Europe. The company supplies high-quality steel products to the most demanding markets, including construction and infrastructure, automotive, packaging and engineering. Tata Steel works with customers to develop new steel products which give them a competitive edge. The Tata Steel Group is among the top global steel companies with an annual crude steel capacity of 34 million tonnes. It is one of the world's most geographically-diversified steel producers, with operations and a commercial presence across the world. The group recorded a consolidated turnover of US $32.83 billion in the financial year ending 31 March, 2022.