ThyssenKrupp Using Hydrogen in Steel Production

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--A glimpse at the potential future for steelmaking has been revealed by German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe (Duisburg, Germany) at its Duisburg steel plant where hydrogen is being used in a working blast furnace.

They are the first tests of their kind, ThyssenKrupp claimed, and are aimed at significantly reducing the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the steelmaking process. Traditionally, around 300 kilograms (kg) of coke and 200 kg of pulverised coal are needed to produce a ton of pig iron. The coal is injected as an additional reducing agent into the bottom of the blast furnace shaft through 28 nozzles, or tuyeres. For the first time, hydrogen was injected through one of the tuyeres into Blast Furnace 9. The company will now extend the use of hydrogen to all 28 tuyeres on Blast Furnace 9 and then, from 2022, to the remaining three blast furnaces at Duisburg. Whereas injecting coal produces significant CO2 emissions, using hydrogen generates water vapour. ThyssenKrupp said that CO2 savings of up to 20% are expected. The company's goal is to become climate-neutral by 2050, and by 2030 emissions from the company's own production and processes as well as its emissions from the purchase of energy will be reduced by 30%.

"Today is a groundbreaking day for the steel industry," said Premal Desai, chairman of ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe. "We are doing pioneering work here. The use of hydrogen is the key lever for climate-neutral steel production. Today's test is another step in the transformation of our production which will culminate in green steel. At the same time, we see what is possible when business and government work together towards a common goal. We are very grateful to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for supporting the project."

The NRW initiative is funded by the state government and is scientifically supported by the BFI research institute. It also supports Germany's plan to abandon coal-fired power and coal mining. NRW economics and digital minister Professor Andreas Pinkwart commented: "The project is an important step on the path to a greenhouse gas-neutral industry and a good example of how innovative key technologies can be developed in North Rhine-Westphalia. We need to keep driving the use of hydrogen in industry because it offers great opportunities, especially in steel production." Following the conversion of the blast furnaces, ThyssenKrupp plans to build large-scale direct reduction plants, which will then be operating with hydrogen-containing gases, starting in the mid-2020s. The sponge iron they produce will initially be melted down in the existing blast furnaces but in the long term will be processed into crude steel in electric arc furnaces using renewable energies.

ThyssenKrupp is not alone in its experiments with hydrogen. Industrial Info is tracking a number of key heavy industrial projects aimed at reducing emissions. ArcelorMittal S.A. (NYSE:MT) (Luxembourg) has announced plans to build a hydrogen-based pilot project at its Hamburg steel plant in Germany "in the coming years." The project will cost about 65 million euro ($73 million). The hydrogen-based reduction of iron ore will initially take place on a demonstration scale with an annual production of 100,000 tonnes. In Sweden, the world's first project for creating fossil-free steel has advanced with the developers of the HYBRIT initiative purchasing a hydrogen generation electrolyzer solution from Nel Hydrogen. Located at the Lulea Steel Works in the north of the country, HYBRIT will use hydrogen from electricity produced by renewable energy instead of coking coal for ore-based steel making, which will also have the added benefit of replacing typical carbon emissions with water. The pilot plant will operate from 2021-2024, followed by a demonstration phase, with target of full-scale implementation by 2035. For additional information, see May 19, 2019, article - World's First Hydrogen-based Steel Project Moves Forward.

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