DISIPO · Decarbonisation of carbon-intensive industries (Iron and Steel Industries) through Power to gas and Oxy-fuel combustion
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-04-01 → 2023-06-30
- EU contribution
- €188,442
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Decarbonisation of carbon-intensive industries (Iron and Steel Industries) through Power to gas and Oxy-fuel combustion
Iron and Steel industry is one of the biggest CO2 emitters, accounting for the 7-9% of the global emissions. The current main steel manufacturing routes are (1) blast furnace combined with basic oxygen furnaces (BF-BOF) and (2) electric arc furnace route (EAF). The former, with production share above 70%, is based on the reduction of iron ores with coke in a blast furnace at temperatures beyond 2000 °C. The EAF route, which almost cover the remaining 30% of the world steel production, uses ferrous scrap as raw material (up to 70%). Since the global steel demand cannot be covered through recycled scrap, the BF-BOF route will maintain its dominance in the market. Besides, blast furnaces will only phased-out at relining, which typically takes places every 20-35 years, or up to 40 years for newly commissioned plants. Thus, at least 20% of today’s blast furnaces will still be in operation by year 2050. Therefore, innovative methods for CO2 reduction in blast furnaces must be developed. One such method is top gas recycling (TGR), which consist on the recycling of the exhaust gas of the blast furnace back into the process, which acts as reducing agent to diminish the coke consumption. A carbon capture stage is usually included before recycling the top gas. The CO2 reduction achieved by this method is limited to 15% because of the presence of N2 in the recirculated gas. TGR evolved to the possibility of combining it with oxygen blast furnaces (OBF). Oxygen blast furnaces use pure oxygen instead of air to burn coke, reducing the amount of fossil fuel required and resulting in higher energy efficiency. The decrease in CO2 emissions is 10% – 40% with respect to BF. Since CO2 is rejected from the recycled top gas via a capture stage during recycling, a non-negligible amount of highly-concentrated CO2 gas is available for underground storage. An alternative option to take advantage of the captured CO2 is to combine OBF with Power to Gas (PtG). PtG technology consumes renewable electricity to produce H2 via water electrolysis, which is then combined with the CO2 emissions of the ironmaking process to obtain synthetic natural gas (SNG). This synthetic fuel is used in the blast furnace to keep carbon in a closed loop. The combination of OBF with PtG may reduce emissions around 45% with respect to air-blown blast furnaces.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The project presents a novel concept that combines Power to Gas (PtG energy storage) and oxy-fuel combustion (carbon capture) to decarbonise carbon-intensive industries (iron/steel as case study). PtG consumes renewable electricity to produce H2 (stored energy) and O2 (byproduct). This O2 is fed in the oxy-fuel furnace in the iron industry to attain a high concentrated CO2 stream, thus avoiding the energy penalization of requiring an air separation unit. Besides, the stored H2 and the captured CO2 are combined via methanation to produce synthetic natural gas to be used in the industry or distributed through the gas network. The overall objective of the project is to reach TRL 2 in the novel PtG–Oxy-fuel–Iron/Steel concept through the following research objectives: 1) To design, simulate and optimize the integrated layout of the novel concept, 2) To assess the maximum CO2 abatement under a proper operational strategy adapted to the industry and the availability of the renewable energy resource, and 3) To compare the concept with iron/steel industries operating with conventional CCS, under economic and life-cycle analyses. The training covers 1) simulation of energy intensive industries, 2) market and industrial criteria and constrains for adopting new technologies, 3) life-cycle assessment and 4) horizontal skills through a wide-ranging programme of activities. These objectives will be reached through a mobility period in Waseda University supervised by Prof. Nakagaki (over 20 years of experience in the topic and 71 patents in collaboration with industry) and a secondment to K1-MET (Austrian Competence Centre for Advanced Metallurgy, driven by the Austrian steel industry). The project is relevant for MSCA due the extensive planned training aimed to gain skills and maturity as researcher, and also because the proposed concept allows recycling CO2 in carbon-intensive industries whose emission-causing processes cannot be replaced with direct electrification.
Original text from CORDIS.
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Data: CORDIS, © European Union