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Home , Blast furnace, Direct reduced iron

96 AUG 2021 I & TECHNOLOGY I AIST.ORG AIST’s recent Decarbonization of recentAIST’s Decarbonization The steel industry is embarking embarking is steel industry The Utilities Technology Committees, Committees, Technology Utilities Iron, Ironmaking and Energy & & Energy and Ironmaking Iron, Efficiency Research & Analysis Analysis & Research Efficiency will require continued energy effi continued energy require will tech with fraught is well-defined, Group at Oak Ridge National Lab National Ridge Group at Oak tions all at once. all tions the Steel Industry webinar, atwo- Industry Steel the upon a journey to a decarbonized adecarbonized to upon ajourney the decarbonization challenge. challenge. decarbonization the part series meant to coalesce some meant coalesce to series part the Manufacturing Energy Energy Manufacturing the leads nical and economic challenges, economic and challenges, nical ciency and yield improvements, yield and ciency oratory in Tennessee. in oratory who Nimbalkar, Sachin ogies,” says of the latest data, observations, observations, data, latest of the future, but its path forward is not is forward path but its future, Experts Explore Decarbonization Explore in Industry the Steel Experts developments and thinking about developments thinking and and will likely go in multiple direc go in likely will and adoption of low-emissions technol low-emissions of adoption economy, and circular to a shift “Meeting the challenge challenge carbon the “Meeting Meeting the carbon challenge will require continued energy energy continued require will challenge carbon the Meeting In short, it won’t short, In easy. be His comments came during during comments came His Organized by the Direct Reduced Direct bythe Organized economy, andlow-emissions technologies. adoption of efficiency and yield improvements, a shift to circular to circular a shift efficiencyyield and improvements, “ Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Laboratory Ridge National Nimbalkar, — Sachin - - - - - Institute VDEh in Germany noted Germany in VDEh Institute the webinar empaneled anumber webinar the will give rise to the need for the new to rise give will in reduction while that own. of its all challenges technical top gas. top gas. highlighted the broader challenges broader challenges the highlighted hydrogen changes the operating operating the hydrogen changes bon reductants can help reduce can reductants bon burden and accumulating in the the in accumulating and burden introduced wafting through the the through wafting introduced not a cure-all and presents a set of presents and not a cure-all of technical experts in energy use use energy in experts of technical of decarbonization, but also gave gave but also of decarbonization, characteristics of , with with of furnaces, characteristics show that data emissions, carbon lower can furnaces blast existing hydrogen is said they emissions, furnaces. blast modern in areductant gen as and blast operations. They They operations. furnace blast and approximately half of the gas gas of the half approximately stituting hydrogen for car other stituting of hydro use the to focus special Although they agreed that sub that agreed they Although That, he and other experts said, said, experts other he and That, Hans Bodo Lüngen of Steel of Steel Lüngen Bodo Hans “ - - - Air Liquide on the project. Where project. on the Liquide Air Hydrogen reduction is an endo an is reduction Hydrogen year. year. firm Hatch, said that another chal that said Hatch, firm , Germany. Germany. Duisburg, temperature it will be necessary to to necessary be it will temperature maintain to so reaction, thermic thyssenkrupp and Air Liquide are are Liquide Air and thyssenkrupp hydrogen source for secondhydrogen source the furnace affect would how gas the hydrogen injection through all 28 28 all through hydrogen injection building a pipeline to link the blast blast the link to apipeline building behavior,” said. Hippe industry might be able adopt might to a be industry it inject hydrogen and the pre-heat into the furnace through asin through furnace into the stage first the noted in was issue insights into the furnace blast into the insights late this year. this late lenge lies with the injection itself. itself. injection the lenge with lies at consulting lurgist ny successfully pushed hydrogen pushed ny successfully equipment and processes to han to equipment processes and operation. operation. at the trials of hydrogen injection furnace directly to an Air Liquide Liquide Air an to directly furnace into it insights gle giving , in furnace No. 9blast facility’s gen that was trucked to the plant, plant, the to trucked was gen that for next planned is furnace developed, he said, but the steel but the developed, he said, dle top gas recycling. recycling. top gas dle at high temperature. temperature. at high as the first stage involved hydro stage first the as stage. stage. the said Europe, Steel senkrupp at thys engineer steel production “What we aim for even more is we aim “What A second, larger trial involving involving trial A second, larger The technology to do so isn’t do to so technology The Ian Cameron, principal principal Cameron, Ian Frederick Hippe, a sustainable asustainable Hippe, Frederick During the trials, the compa the trials, the During Construction is to be completed be to is Construction thyssenkrupp is working with with working is thyssenkrupp ------97

Experts Explore Decarbonization in the Steel Industry By Sam Kusic

similar existing technology from and , electrifi- Global Consulting, said one strate- the oil and gas sector. cation of reheating furnaces, and gy is to adjust the volumes of reduc- Given the dominance of the iron production via electrolysis. tants used in the blast furnace. blast furnace (BF)-basic Aggressive research, develop- To that end, he said, there are furnace (BOF) route in Europe, ment and deployment of pilot- two options: lower a blast furnace’s steelmakers there have been and demonstration-scale projects overall reductant rate or lower the focused on blast furnace–centered focused on transformative tech- proportion of in the reduc-

improvements. But in the U.S., nologies, such as H2-based steel tant rate. Of those, lowering the steelmakers are already ahead of production, is also needed, he said. proportion of coke might be the the decarbonization curve, given In Europe, producers already more feasible option, Poveromo the dominance of the electric arc are setting up pilot- and demon- said, since overall reductant rates furnace (EAF) process route. stration-scale projects showcasing are dependent on iron quality, Sachin said steelmakers in the new technologies, many related which, in turn, is largely driven by U.S. are also benefitting from a rel- to renewably produced hydrogen availability in local markets. atively clean and efficient electric and hydrogen-based ironmaking, In that regard, he said steelmak- grid that is fueled by . according to Lüngen. ers have had some recent successes He said that if the industry con- Lüngen said producers also are by increasing the use of metallics tinues on its current path, invest- developing technologies around such as prepared or hot bri- ing further in strategic energy the capture and reuse of car- quetted iron. And, in fact, every management, optimizing systems bon. For example, thyssenkrupp, kilogram of metallic iron per ton and making greater use of other through its Carbon2Chem project, of hot metal has been shown to reductants such as pulverized is aiming to collect top gas from its reduce the coke rate by 0.3 kg/ton and hydrogen, it could potentially coke plants, converters and blast of hot metal. reduce emissions by up to 30%. furnaces and convert it to useful But the challenge there, he said, But that is certainly not enough products, such as methanol, syn- is one of economics: it makes sense to meet 2050 net carbon-neutral thetic and fertilizer. only if hot metal production is a goals, Sachin said, and therefore Although European steelmakers bottleneck in a given plant and the the industry will have to expand have started down the decarbon- additional liquid steel can be sold its solutions set. ization path, they, too, have a long at a profit or if there is a significant

He said the effort to decarbonize way to go. CO2 emissions credit that comes as the U.S. iron and steel sector must To meet overall CO2 mitigation a result of the reduced reductant be built on three foundational pil- targets, Lüngen said the industry rate. lars: improved energy efficiency; will have to drive down emissions However, even if the economics further electrification of the iron- from approximately 1,300 kg/met- work, there is perhaps a technical making and process ric ton of steel to 91 kg/metric ton limitation to greater use of metal- AUG and adoption of low-carbon by 2050. lics in the blast furnace, although and feedstocks; and development Unlike America, where EAFs researchers have yet to weigh in 2021 I

and deployment of carbon capture account for approximately 70% of definitively, Poveromo said. IRON & STEEL TECHNOLOGY use and storage technologies. crude steel production, the BF-BOF “The key question, which is not Process electrification will be route is dominant in Europe, a fact yet resolved, is what coke rate is important, he said, given that 63% that places a special emphasis on required to maintain permeabili- of the industry’s total energy con- strategies to mitigate carbon emis- ty of gases and liquid in the lower sumption is tied to process heating. sions from those facilities. portion of the blast furnace,” he Such a conversion would entail Joseph Poveromo, a technical said. F I

renewably produced hydrogen consultant who leads his own AIST.ORG used to make blast furnace iron firm, Raw Materials & Ironmaking