SSAB AB to launch the first fossil-free steel products by 2026, or nine years earlier than previously planned, as part of the HYBRIT project. SSAB, Swedish state-owned utility Vattenfall AB and mining company LKAB teamed up in 2016 to develop a new process which uses hydrogen instead of coking coal in ore-based steel making. A pilot plant for fossil-free steel production will be up and running by the summer of 2020, adding that the partners are already exploring the possibility of scaling up production by building a demonstration plant in 2025. This is three years earlier than previously planned.