Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG and RWE Generation SE have announced a “longer-term hydrogen partnership”. Accordingly, hydrogen from RWE should help to reduce CO2 emissions from steel production at Thyssenkrupp. “If possible, the first hydrogen should flow towards the Duisburg steelworks by the middle of the decade,” said the companies.
The hydrogen required for pig iron production is produced exclusively from renewable energies. RWE is planning to build large electrolysis capacities at the Lingen power plant site. A 100 MW electrolyzer could therefore produce 1,7 tons of gaseous hydrogen per hour. According to the company, this corresponds to around 70 percent of the requirements of the Duisburg steelmaker's blast furnace intended for the use of hydrogen. This means that around 50.000 tonnes of climate-neutral steel would be available. The conversion of the unit should be implemented by 2022.
The prerequisite for the cooperation to come about is, among other things, the development of a hydrogen network to transport the gaseous hydrogen from Lingen to the Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe smelting site in Duisburg. The piped transport of hydrogen is the most economical delivery option. Both companies therefore wanted to “advance solutions for a timely network connection in exchange with gas network operators and the authorities”. They assume that hydrogen transport via pipelines will be possible on the basis of regulations that largely correspond to the current regulations for natural gas transport. The GETH2 initiative, in which RWE is involved, is already committed to appropriate solutions. The “green gas variant” of the gas network development plan published in May includes calculations for hydrogen sections parallel to the natural gas network for the first time (we reported).
Building large electrolysis manufacturing capacities
A few days earlier, Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions AG announced that the company had “significantly expanded” its own manufacturing capacity for electrolysis systems for the production of green hydrogen and could now produce electrolysis cells with a total output of up to one gigawatt annually. Together with its strategic supplier and joint venture partner De Nora, capacities should be continuously expanded.
Thyssenkrupp offers its electrolyzers in prefabricated standard modules. One module produces up to 4.000 cubic meters of hydrogen per hour. The modules could be easily transported, installed and interconnected to form various system sizes up to several hundred megawatts and gigawatts. The company has already implemented more than 600 projects and electrochemical plants worldwide with a total output of over 10 gigawatts.
Deep link:
https://www.thyssenkrupp.com/de/newsroom/pressemeldungen/pressedetailseite/gruner-wasserstoff-fur-die-stahlproduktion–rwe-und-thyssenkrupp-planen-zusammenarbeit-82843
https://www.thyssenkrupp.com/de/newsroom/pressemeldungen/pressedetailseite/gruner-wasserstoff–thyssenkrupp-erweitert-fertigungskapazitaten-fur-wasserelektrolyse-auf-gigawatt-massstab-82740
https://www.thyssenkrupp.com
Photos:
Quality control in cell production / © Thyssenkrupp AG
