voestalpine is testing the use of hydrogen plasma technology in a test facility in Donawitz. This should enable steel production from iron ore by melting it in a hydrogen plasma. The plasma serves to reduce the oxides, the plasma energy is to be used to melt the metallic iron. The iron and steel industry is an economically very important branch of industry in Austria, but also one of the ones with the highest emissions. Producing steel from iron ore is an energy-intensive process that also produces large amounts of carbon dioxide. So far, the metallurgical industry has relied heavily on fossil fuels. Reducing climate-damaging emissions is becoming a more pressing issue in the steelmaking process. Hydrogen could “save” the reputation of the steel industry.
On Wednesday, voestalpine CEO Herbert Franz Eibensteiner and CEO Kainersdorfer, who also heads the Metal Engineering Division, invited to a tour of the new Styrian test facility, which is intended to make steel production greener. “We are working flat out on innovative processes that will enable the breakthrough in decarbonization of steel production at the Linz and Donawitz sites,” emphasized Eibensteiner. In Donawitz, researchers are researching how this can be achieved with the help of hydrogen. Blast furnaces that are fired with coal and coke should then no longer exist.
The SuSteel project, which is funded as a COMET project by K1-MET by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG until 2023, stands for sustainable steelmaking, i.e. sustainable steel production. At SuSteel, fossil reducing agents such as coke, coal or natural gas are replaced by hydrogen. A DC electric arc furnace is the heart of the plant. The reactions take place in the arc. The plant is supplied with hydrogen and iron ore, which enter the reaction zone of the arc through a hollow electrode. In the reaction zone, the hydrogen is ionized into plasma and the iron ore is simultaneously melted and reduced in one step. Therefore, this process is also called Hydrogen Plasma Smelting Reduction. At the end of the process, only water vapor escapes, according to the company, CO2 emissions are completely avoided. only water vapor escapes, according to the company, CO2 emissions are completely avoided.
A first laboratory plant for melting around 100 grams of iron ore has already been successfully operated at the Chair of Iron and Steel Metallurgy at the University of Leoben. The initial findings have been incorporated into the scale-up of the reactor, which has a melting capacity of around 90 kilograms. In addition to voestalpine, project partners in this further basic research project are the Metallurgical Competence Center K1-MET and the University of Leoben.
According to its plan for climate-neutral steel production, voestalpine wants to partially replace the existing blast furnace route with a hybrid electric steel route from 2027. By 2050, the use of “green hydrogen” in the steelmaking process is to be gradually increased. “The prerequisite for the realization of this revolutionary vision is obvious: Green electricity and hydrogen must be available in sufficient quantities and at prices in line with the market,” Eibensteiner stated.
At the voestalpine headquarters in Leoben-Donawitz, Styria, the Metal Engineering Division produces high-quality steels that are processed into special rails for the railway infrastructure, premium wires for the automotive industry and high-quality seamless tubes for oil and gas exploration.
In the 2020/21 financial year, the steel group achieved sales of 11.3 billion euros and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 1.1 billion euros, the bottom line – after special depreciation worth millions – was a surplus of 32 Million Euro. As of the end of March 2021, the Linz-based group employed almost 48,700 people worldwide. The global group of companies has around 500 group companies and locations in more than 50 countries worldwide.
Source: Nachrichten
