Dresden. – Seven percent of global CO2emissions come from steel production. If green hydrogen is produced by electrolysis using electricity from renewable energies and used in the steel industry instead of coal in a process called direct reduction, up to 95 percent of carbon dioxide could be saved on the way to raw steel. This is the result of the “feasibility study on reducing COXNUMX” funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).2-Emissions in the steelworks using renewable energies” (MACOR), created by the three Fraunhofer institutes IKTS, ISI and UMSICHT as well as the Salzgitter companies Salzgitter Flachstahl and Salzgitter Mannesmann Research. The Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS coordinated the project.
The questions that had to be clarified included how a change in steel production to a more climate-friendly process should be assessed, what this specifically means for the integrated steelworks of Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH and how much renewable energy would be necessary to produce one ton of CO2 to save. Salzgitter AG had a particular interest in the result, because the group wants to achieve this by 2050 as part of the SALCOS project (“Salzgitter Low CO2 Steelmaking”) a shift towards almost CO2-Complete free crude steel production (we reported).
While Fraunhofer IKTS was primarily dedicated to process simulation, Fraunhofer ISI analyzed the economic viability of different process variants. The employees at Fraunhofer UMSICHT examined the processes involved in direct reduction as well as the properties of the reduced iron, according to a statement. At the Salzgitter companies, the focus was on drawing up an implementation plan for SALCOS, technical studies of directly reduced iron and ecological balancing.
An important parameter is the energy requirement per ton of CO saved2. One result: the avoidance of CO2 in the production of crude steel “is four times more efficient than CO2 “collect” and use it for other purposes, for example to produce chemicals. Hydrogen-based steel production offers a savings potential of “almost 100 percent compared to conventional processes, such as hydrogen injection in a blast furnace.” IKTS simulation calculations have shown “that high-temperature electrolysis is a very efficient and economical process for providing the hydrogen required for direct reduction in the integrated steelworks.” The MACOR project “confirmed the technical feasibility and advantages of our SALCOS approach,” explains Alexander Redenius from Salzgitter Mannesmann Research.
In a follow-up project “Accompanying research on hydrogen in steel production” (BeWiSe), the consortium now wants to advance the optimization of the path to hydrogen-based steel production investigated with MACOR. This project is also funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
deep link
https://www.ikts.fraunhofer.de/de/presse/pressemitteilungen/29-9-2020-co2-emissionen-bei-der-stahlproduktion–von-100-auf-5-.html
https://salcos.salzgitter-ag.com
Photos
Smelter tapping the blast furnace at Salgitter Flachstahl: CO2-Emissions from steel production could be reduced by 95 percent with hydrogen / © Salzgitter AG
Thank you for the information that Salzgitter AG wants to complete a transition to almost CO2050-free crude steel production by 2. During my high school education, I intensively studied global steel production in geography classes. Plans to make steel production more sustainable were already apparent back then.
If you use the search function on this website and enter “steel”, you will also find results for similar projects, for example in Sweden or at Thyssenkrupp. You will also find information about the DWV “HySteel” project.
d.Red.