Minimisation of CO2 Emissions from the BF by hydrogen containing injectants and use of DRI/HBI during transition to new Ironmaking processes until 2030

Targets set by the EU require a 55% decrease of CO2 emissions until 2030. Steel producers have published roadmaps on how to reach this objective. Most include the use of hydrogen or hydrogen-rich injectants and direct reduction. But due to the initially limited availability of green electricity and hydrogen, these roadmaps as a necessity still include hot metal production by blast furnaces, even beyond 2030. Therefore, the CO2 emissions from the blast furnace have also to be reduced to fulfil the emission targets. “H2transBF2030” will make use of arising synergies from the increasing availability of hydrogen, hydrogen-rich injectants and direct reduced iron during the realization of the roadmaps until 2030. Economical boundary conditions, currently hindering further CO2 reduction from the blast furnace, will dramatically change with increasing costs of CO2 certificates, better availability of hydrogen and markets for “green” steel. This will also require a much more dramatic revision of the way blast furnaces are operated than ever in the past decades. So far, injection of hydrogen is known to be limited in the BF due to effects on the process like increased heat demand and shift of process zones, but several measures, including the use of direct reduced iron and shaft gas injection have the potential to compensate these effects. “H2transBF2030” will exploit the potential of simultaneous application of all these measures in the blast furnace to reduce the CO2 emissions much further than it was believed to be possible in the past. The target is a reduction of 25–35%. This will be achieved by consistent laboratory and modelling studies, as well as by trials at blast furnaces. Current CO2 mitigation bottlenecks will be systematically eliminated, and new CO2-minimal operational set points of the blast furnace will be identified and assessed, including high hydrogen reduction share, very thin coke layers and use of direct reduced iron.

The research at Process Metallurgy Research Unit is focused on high-temperature simulation tests for blast furnace burden materials at high H2-H2O containing atmospheres to gain data for modelling reaction kinetics. The laboratory tests will show how burden material behavior changes as elevated amounts of hydrogen containing injectants are injected to a blast furnace.

Total budget: 3 443 576 EUR

Partners: VDEh Betriebsforschungsinstitut GmbH (BFI), Aktien-Gesellschaft der Dillinger Hüttenwerke, Tata Steel Nederland Technology BV, Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann GmbH (HKM), Åbo Akademi, Oulun yliopiston, Paul Wurth S.A., Centre de Recherches Métallurgiques asbl (CRM), Arcelormittal Maizieres Research SA, Swerim AB