Pressurized Chemical Looping for Direct Reduced Iron Production: Carbon Neutral Process Configuration and Performance

Nicole Bond, Robert Symonds and Robin Hughes
Additional contact information
Nicole Bond: Natural Resources Canada, CanmetENERGY-Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1A 1M1, Canada
Robert Symonds: Natural Resources Canada, CanmetENERGY-Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1A 1M1, Canada
Robin Hughes: Natural Resources Canada, CanmetENERGY-Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1A 1M1, Canada

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-17

Abstract: To achieve net-zero iron and steel production by 2050, many iron and steel producers are turning to direct reduced iron (DRI)—electric arc furnace (EAF) steel production as an opportunity to achieve significant CO 2 emissions reductions relative to current levels. However, additional innovations are required to close the gap between DRI and net-zero steel. Pressurized chemical looping-DRI (PCL-DRI) is a novel technology explored to meet this target, in which the reformer firebox and fired process gas heaters are replaced with PCL combustion units. Captured CO 2 is conditioned and compressed for pipeline transportation and storage/utilization. The performance of two different PCL-DRI configurations relative to traditional DRI processes was explored via process simulation: a Midrex-type process and an Energiron-type process. The PCL-DRI processes were shown to have equivalent or lesser total fuel consumption (8% reduction) compared to the base cases, and greater process water production (170–260% increase), with minimal or no loss in thermal efficiency. PCL-DRI is a strong competitor to alternative methods of reaching net-zero DRI due to lower energy penalties for carbon capture, no required changes to stream chemistry in or out of the EAF, and no requirement for hydrogen infrastructure.

Keywords: pressurized chemical looping combustion; syngas production; carbon neutral ironmaking; direct reduced iron; CO 2 capture; 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: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/14/5219/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/14/5219/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:14:p:5219-:d:865974

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().