Decarbonization of the Iron and Steel Industry with Direct Reduction of Iron Ore with Green Hydrogen

Abhinav Bhaskar, Mohsen Assadi and Homam Nikpey Somehsaraei
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Abhinav Bhaskar: University of Stavanger, Faculty of Science and Technology, Instiute of Energy and Petroleum Engineering, 4036 Stavanger, Norway
Mohsen Assadi: University of Stavanger, Faculty of Science and Technology, Instiute of Energy and Petroleum Engineering, 4036 Stavanger, Norway
Homam Nikpey Somehsaraei: University of Stavanger, Faculty of Science and Technology, Instiute of Energy and Petroleum Engineering, 4036 Stavanger, Norway

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-23

Abstract: Production of iron and steel releases seven percent of the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Incremental changes in present primary steel production technologies would not be sufficient to meet the emission reduction targets. Replacing coke, used in the blast furnaces as a reducing agent, with hydrogen produced from water electrolysis has the potential to reduce emissions from iron and steel production substantially. Mass and energy flow model based on an open-source software (Python) has been developed in this work to explore the feasibility of using hydrogen direct reduction of iron ore (HDRI) coupled with electric arc furnace (EAF) for carbon-free steel production. Modeling results show that HDRI-EAF technology could reduce specific emissions from steel production in the EU by more than 35 % , at present grid emission levels (295 kgCO 2 /MWh). The energy consumption for 1 ton of liquid steel (tls) production through the HDRI-EAF route was found to be 3.72 MWh, which is slightly more than the 3.48 MWh required for steel production through the blast furnace (BF) basic oxygen furnace route (BOF). Pellet making and steel finishing processes have not been considered. Sensitivity analysis revealed that electrolyzer efficiency is the most important factor affecting the system energy consumption, while the grid emission factor is strongly correlated with the overall system emissions.

Keywords: hydrogen; direct reduction of iron ore; green steel production; industrial decarbonization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

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