Green hydrogen produced in situ for hard to abate
Decarbonizing steel with clean hydrogen is possible and Italy is ready to demonstrate its feasibility. Among the various projects that are being established for the use of the carrier in the steel field is today also the initiative signed Snam, TenarisDalmine and Tenova. The companies have embarked on a collaboration to introduce H2 into a steel product processing plant. This is happening in Dalmine, where Tenaris, the largest global manufacturer and supplier of tubes, will initiate a unique experiment in Italy. At the same steel site, an electrolysis system will be installed, and the hydrogen produced will fuel a burner for the rolling of the pipes.
Decarbonize steel with clean hydrogen
The production of iron and steel with current technologies requires large amounts of coal. As a result, large amounts of CO2 are released. For precision, it has been calculated that the manufacture of 1 tonne of steel emits on average about 1.85 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The replacement of this fossil fuel with hydrogen (generated with renewable energy) is therefore one of the most interesting options for decarbonizing a hard-to-abate sector such as steel. And it is despite the initial price gap. According to a 2020 report by the European Commission, at current price levels, replacing coal with hydrogen would increase the cost of a ton of steel by about a third. “This gap is likely to shrink over the next few years and could disappear by 2030,” the report says.
How to use hydrogen in the steel industry
When we talk about decarbonizing steel with hydrogen the first thought goes to Direct Reduced Iron, that is, the direct reduction of iron minerals with H2 to produce iron inside an oven at relatively low temperatures; and then transform it further into liquid steel with an electric oven. But this is not the only steel operation in which the carrier can be used and Italian experimentation proves this.
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Dalmine’s project aims to use hydrogen in a new burner recently developed by Tenova. The device (100% H2 ready) has been installed in a heating oven for the hot lamination of tubes without welding, which allows the production of so-called “mother tubes” with different sizes and progressively smaller diameters.
To produce the clean fuel will be, directly in situ, a system for alkaline electrolysis made available by Snam in leasing.
“The project – read in the press note – also envisaged the significant contribution of Techint Engineering & Construction, a company that provides continuously expanding design and project management services in the field of energy transition, with the development of general and detail engineering of the installation, development of risk analysis and verification of compliance with legal requirements and safety standards”.