elements of contract law essay

Elements of a Contract Essay

A contract is an agreement that involves two or more parties with the aim of creating a lawful responsibility. The accord sets the limits and dictates how the entities, the offeror and the offeree are expected to conduct themselves. A contract clearly states the mandates of each party and the consequences that can follow if one party fails in its designated responsibility (Goldman & Sigismond, 2010).

Thus, it is important to understand the elements of a valid contract to avoid any disagreement among parties. The major elements of a contract are: offer, acceptance, legal consideration, object, capacity of parties, and consent.

In business contracts, an offer refers to what one party is willing to do for the other party. Alternatively, it can be something that one party is willing to give to another party in the contract. The offer must be communicated to all the parties – it can be oral or written. Field (2011) states that the offer must be clearly stated in terms of the target object, conditions, and the parties involved.

Once the offer is communicated, acceptance of the terms and conditions of the offer creates a contract. This implies that the offeree must also communicate the acceptance to the offeror, which exactly reflects the offer made. An offer becomes invalid once an acceptance has been received and therefore, the offering part should no longer communicate the offer to the accepting party.

Additionally, legal consideration seeks to bind the contracting parties. Consideration refers to what the parties earn from a contract. Without a consideration, a contract is not valid because the consideration is supposed to influence the parties to stick to the contract. The consideration can be in any form, such as money and so forth. Lawful consideration is essential because an agreement is only valid when there is something in return, not necessarily cash, but an act, abstinence or promise, and to do or not do something (Mallor et al., 2010).

Object of the contract is also an important element of a contract which must be legal. Object refers to the thing that is making people to enter the agreement; without it, the agreement is not valid. For instance, in an employment agreement, the job position is the subject of the agreement because if it were not there, the parties would not have needed the contract, and hence it is the backbone of an agreement.

Capacity of the parties also determines the nature of a contract. Contracts are open to all persons as long as they are not underage. Besides, for an individual to enter or participate in an agreement, he/she must have sound mind. This implies that a contract does not consider a child as a party.

People who are out of their mind are also exempted from this role because they are not conscious about themselves. Goldman and Sigismond (2010) explain that children who are below the age of 16 can only enter contracts through their parents or a guardian.

Furthermore, consent is required for a contract to be valid. A contract requires the signatures of the entities that are involved in it. However, the law does not recognize consents granted through manipulation or force.

For instance, a person who is under the influence of alcohol cannot give genuine consent because alcohol impairs one’s judgment. This means that communication must take place before granting consent to ensure that all the parties are acquainted to the terms of the contract. It is therefore important to draw conclusions before signing the contract document.

In conclusion, understanding the elements of a contract is important because they are the aspects used to evaluate the validity of an accord in a court of law. This is because most business people are fond of entering agreements without prior understanding of the elements of a valid contract. All the parties should analyze their capacity before entering an agreement.

The major elements of a valid contract include offer, acceptance, legal consideration, object, capacity of parties, and consent. Before filing a lawsuit, it is important to evaluate one’s capacity and the object of a contract because unjustified claims will only lead to occurrence of unnecessary expenses. Therefore, having appropriate legal capacity binds the subjects or parties to the contract and avoids dispute.

Field, C. (2011). Elements of a Contract. The Law Handbook. Australia: Fitzroy Legal Service. Web.

Goldman, J.A. & Sigismond, D.W. (2010). Business law: Principles and Practices . Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Mallor, J.P., Barnes, A.J., Bowers, T., & Langvardt, A.W. (2010). Business Law: The Ethical, Global, and Ecommerce Environment (14th ed.). New York: Irwin/McGraw Hill.

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IvyPanda. (2020, May 15). Elements of a Contract. https://ivypanda.com/essays/elements-of-a-contract/

"Elements of a Contract." IvyPanda , 15 May 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/elements-of-a-contract/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Elements of a Contract'. 15 May.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Elements of a Contract." May 15, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/elements-of-a-contract/.

1. IvyPanda . "Elements of a Contract." May 15, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/elements-of-a-contract/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Elements of a Contract." May 15, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/elements-of-a-contract/.

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Elements of a Contract

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Businesses rely on contracts to establish the foundation of their professional relationships while also supplying the agreed-upon procedures that govern those relationships. Having the right elements of a contract are important to keep you protected. With a contract, the parties involved establish how they will work together and how each party’s duties and responsibilities will be enforced.

For a legal document to be a binding contract and enforceable, certain elements must be present in the contract. The required elements of a contract are:

• consideration

A contract is an agreement, written or spoken, between two or more parties that create legal obligations between the parties.

What are the Elements of a Contract?

• Contract Offer. This is a promise by one party to another that they will or will not perform a specific action in the future. Example : I will pay you $6,800 for the purchase of your golf cart.
• Contract Acceptance. The acceptance usually mirrors the terms of the offer – an expression, through words or deeds, that both parties agree to the terms of the contract.
• This is proof that both parties clearly understand and agree to “the basic substance of the contract”.
• Contractual Consideration. Contractual consideration entails something of value promised in exchange for the actions (or nonactions) defined in the offer, the most common of which is payment for goods delivered distinguishes a contract from a gift because it removes the voluntary nature of the act/non-act by requiring something of value in exchange for the promise.
• Capacity. This element indicates that each signatory to the contract has demonstrated the “legal capacity” to understand what they are signing.
• Legality. This element indicates that all contracts are subject to the laws of the jurisdiction under which they operate. This is typically found in the Governing Law clause .

Different Types of Contracts

Contracts are everywhere. You are probably using one or more contracts in your everyday life and do not even realize it. Following are some types of contracts used in our everyday lives.

• Your lease agreement or mortgage
• Terms and conditions of your credit card
• Employment contracts
• Rental car company contracts
• Terms and conditions when you sign up for a service
• Cellphone contract

Contracts are at the heart of every service that you perform or receive. Contracts govern so many facets of life, from individual actions to the actions of a multinational company. Yet though their impact is profound, contracts often operate “under the radar” quietly managing all manner of business and personal relationships. As an individual, there are contracts associated with a variety of day-to-day activities and responsibilities.

In business, the three most common types of contracts are:

• Sales contracts . Sales contracts facilitate sales transactions and customer engagement.
• Nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) . Nondisclosure agreements protect organizations key assets, reputation and business data.
• Service & vendor agreements . Service contracts optimize and manage business relationships with consultants, contractors and other third-party actors.

Nicholas M.

What is the average cost of hiring a lawyer to draft a contract.

Hiring a contract lawyer is not always necessary, however, before signing a business contract, always have a lawyer look it over and confirm that you are getting what you expected. The lawyer should go over all the contract clauses in a contract before you sign it. You want to be sure that the contract protects your interests specifically.

Following is a list of reasons why you should hire a contract lawyer .

• To help you better understand a contract clause
• To advise you before of potential pitfalls prior to signing the contract
• Identify potential liability issues and resolve them
• Ensure that the contract is valid and legally enforceable
• Ensure new regulations and applicable state laws are considered
• Offer new perspectives and make new suggestions
• Respond to a breach of contract
• Advocate on your behalf
• Terminate a contract

The terms and clauses in a contract can have direct financial consequence for your business. A well-written contract that is strategically aligned with your business interests is an incredibly valuable guarantor that the obligation to you will be met.

Every business deserves that peace of mind and contractual protection. To ensure your contracts will stand up to scrutiny, it might make sense to delegate the writing, reviewing, negotiation, or execution of your contracts to a contract lawyer. Delegating this critical task to a knowledgeable contract lawyer is one of the best ways to manage risk.

The consequences of a poorly written contract, or worse, not having a contract to begin with, can be severe. Hiring a contract lawyer is certainly a worthwhile expense for your company. Better to err on the side of caution, rather than not.

What is the average cost to hire a contract lawyer to draft a contract ? Contract drafting costs range between $200 and $800 for a simple contract and $1,000 and $5,000 for a complex contract. Contract lawyers can offer hourly or flat fee contract drafting services. The cost of drafting a contract depends upon the scope and depth of your objectives and the complexity of terms and business relationship.

Unless you feel comfortable about what you are doing, if you do not want to hire a lawyer to draft the contract, you can write the contract yourself. It is not mandatory that a contract is written by a lawyer. Again, if you feel comfortable that you know what you are doing, go for it.

How to Write a Contract

Following are a few things to keep in mind when writing a contract.

• Keep it simple. Excessive legalese in a contract is not necessary to make the contract enforceable.
• Identify each person correctly in the contract. Be sure that each party that the contract pertains to, is identified correctly in the contract.
• Spell out all the details. Be sure to spell out the terms and conditions of the contract and what is expected of each party in the contract.
• Specify payment obligations. Be specific about the payment obligations so that there is no confusion or misunderstanding in the future.
• Agree on circumstances that terminate the contract. Specify reasons why the contract could be terminated.
• Agree on a way to resolve disputes. Be clear about how disputes will be resolved.
• Pick a state law to govern the contract. You must specify a state law that governs the contract. Example, if both parties live in California, then California would be the state law that would be used.
• Keep it confidential. Unless agreed upon by all parties in advance, information in the contract should be kept confidential.

Even though a contract is not required to be in writing, to protect yourself, it is best that the contract be in writing. More times than not, people have entered into verbal contracts, only to run into all kinds of issues down the line.

If the contract is in writing, it can be proven. If a contract was entered into verbally, you will have no way of proving that you entered into a contract unless someone else was present at the time the verbal contract was made. Even if someone else is witness to a verbal contract, the validity of the contract still may be hard to prove in a court of law.

One of the elements required to make a contract enforceable is a signature. If you enter into a verbal contract, there is no signature.

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Hi there. My practice focuses on several aspects of business law, including business entity formation and organizational documents, trademark and copyright, tax disputes, and contracts. I work with quite a few creative entrepreneurs, such as photographers, artists, and musicians.

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Essays on Contract

former Professor of English Law, University of Oxford, and Honorary Fellow

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This is a revised edition of the paperback Essays on Contract , which was published by OUP in 1988. With the addition of a previously unpublished chapter, this chapter is an up-to-date and comprehensive account of the views on the law and theory of contract. The new essay, ‘Freedom of Contract and the New Right’, charts the latest shift in the development of contract law, this time back in the direction of Freedom of Contract. This shift, the author argues, can be traced directly to the growing strength of the ‘New Right’ and its advocacy of political and economic freedom.

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Essay: Elements of a contract

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Then there is consideration which is something of value, money or a promise, given by both parties to a contract that encourages them to enter in to the agreement to exchange mutual performances (quid pro quo). A valuable consideration, in the sense of the law, may consist either of some right, interest, profit or benefit accruing to the one party, or some forbearance, detriment loss or responsibility, given, suffered or undertaken by the other.” Consideration is referred to as executory or executed but not past.

Another main building block of a contract is legal capacity. This essentially states that not everyone is entitled to enter a contract as some people have problematic consent and will therefore have a separate dealing. The list includes; people with mental impairment, minors, people who have been declared bankrupt, corporation i.e. people who act on behalf of a company and convicted prisoners.

For an agreement between two parties to stand in court, there must be the intention to enter into a legally binding agreement. The body of this essay will be based around how the presumptions of the court can sometimes go against the intentions of the what the parties seek. It may happen that when a case is brought to court, there may be an offer and acceptance as well as a good consideration but the intention to create legal relations may be absent and this can influence the court’s decision and prevent the making of a contract. Basically, the aim of intention to create legal relations in contract law is to get rid of cases that aren’t seen as fit or appropriate for legal action, and without evidence of this intention, no case will stand before the courts despite any existence of consideration for the contract.

There are two type of contract that the courts acknowledge; domestic or social settings and commercial settings, which both have different legal presumptions that may go against the intentions of the parties involved.

In domestic or social agreements, are usually made among friends or family and the law presumes that generally the parties do not seek to create any legal relations. It must be proven that the parties intended the create a legally binding document to enforce a domestic or social contract. In the case of Balfour v Balfour [1919] 2 KB 571, we see how presumptions of domestic agreements went against the intention of Mrs. Balfour. After a visit to England Mrs. Balfour remained in the country having been diagnosed with rheumatic arthritis and was unable to return to Ceylon with her husband. Mr. Balfour agreed to pay his wife £30 a month, however they soon separated after spending so long apart. The Plaintiff (Mrs. Balfour) sued her husband for not receiving the payments of money he promised. The issues put forwards to court questioned;

_1) Did the defendants offer intend to become legally bound?

_2) Does the fact they were husband and wife matter?

Mrs. Balfour was given decree nisi and managed to obtain an order for alimony as at first, it was held that Mr. Balfour was obliged to support his wife. The verdict was appealed and it was unanimously decided that no enforceable agreement was made and Warrington LJ dissented, that there was no intention to create a legally bound agreement and to dispose the case. Duke LJ, touched on the fact that they were not yet divorced and that the onus of proof was on the plaintiff, Mrs. Balfour to show that there was a deemed promise of contractual nature.

It was held that the law of contract is not used for personal family relationships and that when a domestic agreement is made, there is a rebuttable presumption against the intention to create a contract that is legally enforceable. In the Court of Appeal, the plaintiff did not rebut the presumption. This is a prime example of how the operations of presumptions in domestic agreements can go against the intentions of, in this case, the party of Mrs. Balfour. We can see a contrast in the presumptions with the case of Merritt v Merritt [1970] 2 All ER 760; [1970] 1 WLR 1211 where the court distinguished between the fact that at the time of the agreement, Mr and Mrs. Merritt were married, but estranged and any agreements or promises made between the two were made with the intention to create a legal contract. The difference between these two cases were that Merritt v Merritt was a written agreement and had legal standing whereas Balfour v Balfour was only an oral promise.

If we take a closer look at Jones v Padavattan [1969] 1 WLR 328, another domestic or social agreement regarding a parent and child. “In 1962, Mrs Jones offered her daughter a monthly allowance if she gave up her job in Washington to come to England to sit the bar and become a barrister. Due to accommodation problems Mrs Jones bought a house in London where the daughter lived and received rents from other tenants. In 1967, they fell out and Mrs Jones claimed the house even though the daughter had not yet passed half of her exams”. “There is a presumption that contracts entered into with family members do not give rise to legal relations. These are rather good faith commitments, and the law does not enforce promises made in good faith. The issues put forward by Dankwerts LJ in this case questioned;

1) “Was there intention to create legal relations?”

2) “Was the agreement ‘so obscure and so uncertain’ that it could give rise to legal relations?”

Dankwerts compared the case of Balfour v Balfour to that, as the same principles apply to dealings that involved other relations whether it be husband and wife, father and son or mother and daughter. Salmon LJ came to the same conclusion but by a different route, through the presumption of fact, not law. He explains that a family situation such as this did not have the intention to create legal relations but intend on “family ties of mutual trust and affection”. Atkinson LJ had an objective approach, stating that the whole agreement was “far too vague to give rise to legal relati ons” as there was already a dispute and misunderstanding from the start of the agreement regarding the sum of the allowance.

“It was held that the first agreement to study was a family arrangement and not intended to be binding. Even if it was, it could only be deemed to be for a reasonable time, in this case five years. The second agreement was only a family agreement and there was no intention to create legal relations. Therefore, the mother was not liable on the maintenance agreement and could also claim the house”. If both parties wanted to seek a legally bound agreement (rebut the presumption), they would need a solicitor to do so. Due to the absence of a legal agreement, the presumption was not rebutted.

In the cases of Balfour v Balfour, Merritt v Merritt and Jones v Padavattan, we see how the different presumptions of contract law are established. The general presumption however, is that domestic or social agreements, do not have the intention to create legal relations and therefore, do not need enforcement by the courts. Domestic and social agreements attract a rebuttable presumption that there is no intention to create legal relations, however in commercial agreements there is a rebuttable presumption that the parties involved, intend to create a legal contract.

In the case of Esso Petroleum Ltd. v Commissioner of Customs and Excise [1976] 1 A11 ER 117, the presumption is very difficult to rebut. In the 70’s, the taxpayers (Esso) created a petrol sales promotion scheme, where for every 4 gallons of petrol bought by customers, they received a coin which bore likeliness to one of the members of the English soccer team. The purpose of the scheme was to encourage people to buy petrol in return for coins and collect them until they had gathered all 30 coins. The Esso company provided posters and TV advertisement, with phrases such as ‘Going Free, at your Esso Action Station now’. The Customs and Excise commissioners filed a suit against the petroleum company claiming that the coin was chargeable to purchase tax under section 2(1) of the ‘Purchase Tax Act 1963’. The issue put forward questioned;

1) “Was consideration provided for the receipt of the world cup coins?”

Esso argued that the coins were given away for free and therefore were not resell-able items and the promotion was not intended to create any legal agreements. The Commissioners concluded that the promotion arose from a contract of sale of money. The court held there was intention to create legal intentions as the process took place in a business setting and was accepted by customers. However, despite the legal intentions there was no consideration as the coins were transferred under a separate contract of sale of petroleum. The coins were offered by means of commercial context, and it cannot be accepted that Esso had no intention to create legal relations. Esso obviously presumed their customers would find value in these coins because if they didn’t, why would they run the promotion in the first place? The presumption can certainly be raised that there was intention to create legal intentions.

Another example that shows that presumptions can go against the parties, is the case of Rose & Frank Co v Crompton Bros [1925] AC. Rose & Frank Co.(RFC) were the American distributor for J.R Crompton’s (JRC) new paper product. Both entered into an agreement whereby by the plaintiffs (RFC) were the sole agents for the sale of the defendant (JRC) paper in the US. However, within in this agreement included an “honourable pledge clause”, which stated that they were not entering into a formal or legal agreement and would not be subject to legal jurisdiction. Later a dispute arose and Crompton Bros, terminated their agreement, because of this RFC sued them. They were successful and J.R Crompton appealed. The issue questioned in this case was;

1) Can a clause be placed in a contract stating that it is not legally binding or is there a contract regardless of that?

The judgement was reversed in the Court of Appeal. This decision shows how the honourable pledge clause rebutted the presumption which normally exists in commercial agreements that the parties intend to be legally bound by their agreements. The agreement therefore had no legal affect and was not enforceable by the courts. This proves that although a contract was established, the court respects and honours the clause contained within the contract stating that it is not a legally bound agreement and therefore, there was no intention to create legal relations.

In conclusion, the doctrine of intention to create legal relations bares a huge role in the making of a contract and how it is interpreted. The cases of ‘Balfour v Balfour [1919] 2 KB 571’ and ‘Jones v Padavattan [1969] 1 WLR 328’ allow us to understand how domestic or social settings can impact the legality of a contract or agreement and the cases of ‘Esso Petroleum Ltd. v Commissioner of Customs and Excise [1976] 1 A11 ER 117’ and ‘Rose & Frank Co v Crompton Bros [1925] AC 445’, show how commercial settings differ. The operations of its presumptions, essentially decide whether a contract is legally bound and whether court action is required.

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Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 260: Listen and Learn -- Elements of a Crime

In this episode, we discuss:

>The four elements necessary to prove a crime

>The defendant's state of mind and criminal intent when they commit a crime

>Actual and proximate See more + Welcome back to the Bar Exam Toolbox podcast! Today, we're focusing on the basics of Criminal Law – that is, the elements of a crime. Specifically, we're going to spend some time diving into the two most important elements: causation and mens rea. 

>Actual and proximate causation

>Two hypos from previous California bar exams

>"Listen and Learn" series (https://barexamtoolbox.com/bar-exam-toolbox-podcast-archive-by-topic/bar-exam-toolbox-podcast-explaining-individual-mee-and-california-bar-essay-questions/#listen-learn)

>California Bar Examination – Essay Questions and Selected Answers, July 2007 (https://nwculaw.edu/pdf/bar/July%202007%20Essays%20and%20Sample%20Answers.pdf)

>California Bar Examination – Essay Questions and Selected Answers, October 2020 (https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Portals/0/documents/admissions/Examinations/October-2020-Essay-Selected-Answers.pdf)

>Podcast Episode 185: Listen and Learn – Prosecution of a Criminal Trial (Burdens, Presumptions, Sufficiency) (https://barexamtoolbox.com/podcast-episode-185-listen-and-learn-prosecution-of-a-criminal-trial-burdens-presumptions-sufficiency/)

>Podcast Episode 202: Listen and Learn – Defenses to a Crime (https://barexamtoolbox.com/podcast-episode-202-listen-and-learn-defenses-to-a-crime/)

>Podcast Episode 218: Listen and Learn – Intent Under the Model Penal Code (Criminal Law) (https://barexamtoolbox.com/podcast-episode-218-listen-and-learn-intent-under-the-model-penal-code-criminal-law/)

Download the Transcript (https://barexamtoolbox.com/episode-260-listen-and-learn-elements-of-a-crime/)

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Hydrogen Offers Germany a Chance to Take a Lead in Green Energy

A subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp, Germany’s venerable steel producer, is landing major deals for a device that makes the clean-burning gas from water.

Workers transporting cell modules for an electrolyzer built by ThyssenKrupp Nucera, next to a steel mill in Duisburg, Germany. Credit... Felix Schmitt for The New York Times

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Stanley Reed, who writes on energy and the environment, and Melissa Eddy, a Berlin economics and business correspondent, visited ThyssenKrupp Nucera’s sites in Germany.

• April 30, 2024

In the city of Duisburg in Germany’s industrial heartland is a vast steel complex that is one of Europe’s largest polluters. But alongside the mill’s furnaces and smelters, technicians have developed a machine that could soon play a vital role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

By using electricity to split water into its two elements, the device, a test model called an electrolyzer, produces hydrogen, a carbon-free gas that could help power mills like the one in Duisburg. If adopted widely, the devices could help clean up heavy industry, such as steel-making, in Germany and elsewhere.

“We are maybe in one of those few very promising industries where Germany has a significant and very promising base,” said Werner Ponikwar, chief executive of ThyssenKrupp Nucera, which produces the electrolyzers. The company was spun off from ThyssenKrupp, a German steel giant, in 2023.

The Nucera project was backed by a German government fund worth 700 million euros, or $746 million. Overall, German state and federal governments have earmarked €13.2 billion for investment in about two dozen projects to develop hydrogen.

The concept of hydrogen as a renewable energy source has been around for years, but only within the past decade has the idea of its potential to replace fossil fuels to power heavy industry taken off, leading to increased investment and advances in the technology.

That support is beginning to pay off. The owners of some of the world’s most ambitious clean energy projects, including Shell, Europe’s largest energy company, and the government of Saudi Arabia, have ordered much larger versions of the two-megawatt electrolyzer in Duisburg, as they look toward a carbon-free industrial era.

Washington earmarked more funding as part of the incentives in President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the 2022 law that is offering hundreds of billions of dollars for carbon-free, or green, technology. The Department of Energy awarded Nucera a $50 million grant last month to further develop production of gigawatt-scale electrolyzers for North America.

Such large subsidies reflect the recognition that the technology will not get off the ground without government support, said Christoph Noeres, head of green hydrogen at Nucera, pointing to the multibillion-dollar pledges for green steel and green hydrogen projects from Berlin to Washington.

“I think they understood that it must be now big scale,” he said.

Analysts point to the ability of hydrogen produced with renewable energy to slash carbon dioxide emissions from heavy industries, including steel-making and long-haul travel by air or sea.

“The only reason we should not believe in hydrogen is if we do not believe in decarbonization altogether,” said Bernd Heid, who heads the Platform for Climate Technologies at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. “There are ups and downs and it’s going in waves, but I am confident that we are on a long steady path to decarbonization.”

Germany is working to radically reduce the amount of carbon dioxide it emits by 2045. That will mean not only shifting to low-carbon fuels like electricity for heating and transportation, but finding ways to slash emissions from the dirtiest industries, including steel, fertilizer and cement.

ThyssenKrupp plans to use hydrogen to eventually help reduce the 20 million tons of carbon dioxide that its steel mill in Duisburg pumps out each year, or about 2.5 percent of Germany’s overall emissions. The company, which traces its roots to the industrial revolution in the 19th century, recently found its existence threatened by competition from China and other factors undercutting its key businesses, including steel-making.

On April 11, ThyssenKrupp announced that it would reduce production capacity at the Duisburg plant, which employs some 13,000 people, by around 20 percent. The company cited high energy prices and the pressure to meet carbon neutrality among reasons for the reduction.

ThyssenKrupp’s foray into hydrogen through Nucera, of which it owns just over 50 percent, shows that seeds of economic growth for German industries may be in the rusting landscapes of industrial decay. Among ThyssenKrupp’s grab bag of businesses was a world-leading supplier of equipment for making chlorine, a chemical with many uses including in drinking water and swimming pools. As it turns out, new iterations of these machines can be used to make hydrogen.

As interest in using hydrogen as a clean fuel grew, ThyssenKrupp executives figured out that they could secure a place in the renewable energy business. “All those features that, I would say, our industry is striving for we have already in our pockets,” Mr. Ponikwar said.

Being linked to a well-known company that has helped build factories and other large facilities around the world has turned out to be a selling point for potential customers. When CF Industries, a large fertilizer maker, decided to invest in an electrolyzer to help make low-emissions ammonia at a plant in Donaldsonville, La., it was ThyssenKrupp’s industrial track record that led it to pick Nucera to supply a $100 million unit.

“We believed it provided the lowest risk from a technology standpoint and the highest performance and reliability,” said Tony Will, chief executive of CF Industries.

Similar attributes led H2 Green Steel, a start-up based in Stockholm, to pick ThyssenKrupp to supply what may be the largest electrolyzer in Europe for a plant in northern Sweden that will produce emissions-free steel. Very few potential suppliers “have the muscles” to meet the performance targets required, said Maria Persson Gulda, chief technology officer of H2 Green Steel.

Nucera has not entirely escaped the downturn in renewables, which has pounded the shares of other hydrogen-focused companies like ITM Power in Britain and Plug Power in the United States. The company’s shares, which were listed at €20 in July, have fallen to about €12.

With higher interest rates and inflation upending the economics of renewable energy projects , analysts have dialed back their forecasts for the adoption of hydrogen. “Everything is more expensive than originally thought,” said Hector Arreola, principal analyst for hydrogen at Wood Mackenzie, an energy consulting firm.

Nucera said in February that sales for the quarter ending on Dec. 31 rose 35 percent from a year earlier, to €208 million.

The boost came mainly from delivery of electrolyzers to Saudi Arabia , where the company is supplying what could be the world’s largest array of green hydrogen producers as part of an $8.4 billion project in the region of Neom, the ambitious city being built by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudi government owns 6 percent of Nucera’s shares.

The economics of green hydrogen are largely determined by the price tag for the electrolyzers and the cost of the volumes of carbon-free electric power needed to run them. In an effort to retain energy leadership in the coming years, Saudi Arabia has big ambitions as a hydrogen exporter because it can produce cheap solar power in its vast deserts. H2 Green Steel has secured a low-cost contract for hydroelectric power, another green source.

Green hydrogen produced by electrolyzers tends be more expensive than so-called gray hydrogen, which relies on fossil fuels and produces emissions when used in industries like fertilizers and oil refining. An experimental hydrogen index compiled by the European Energy Exchange, a financial market, pegs green hydrogen at about eight times the cost of European natural gas futures.

Mr. Will of CF Industries said the key energy cost of making his green ammonia would be $600 a ton — six times as much as with gray hydrogen. He is lining up customers willing to pay a premium for a green product.

CF Industries said support for making hydrogen under the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act could narrow much of the difference.

At the same time, existing industrial players seem likely to play a key role in shifting to cleaner processes using hydrogen and other alternatives.

“You need that skill set that Europe — and especially Germany — has developed over the past hundred years ,” Mr. Heid said. “Industrial companies have the technology, and they have the skills to scale it up.”

Stanley Reed reports on energy, the environment and the Middle East from London. He has been a journalist for more than four decades. More about Stanley Reed

Melissa Eddy is based in Berlin and reports on Germany’s politics, businesses and its economy. More about Melissa Eddy

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