Swiss Steel subsidiary Deutsche Edelstahlwerke (DEW) is to receive around half a million euros in funding from the German government. The money will be used to upgrade a reheating furnace at the Krefeld site for operation with hydrogen. The measure is part of the "H2-HotRoll" project of the VDEh steel institute.
According to the Swiss Steel Group, the approved funding amounts to €516,000. This is intended to lay the foundation for the technical conversion to hydrogen-fueled furnaces in three years.
The capacity of the furnace is around 2 MW, according to Swiss Stell. In particular, the project is investigating the expected effects and the necessary adaptation of the furnace infrastructure (burners, fittings and furnace combustors) to operation with hydrogen.
Background: Hydrogen has a higher flame temperature and an increased water content or reduced CO2 content in the hot gas. This leads to a change in the heat transfer in the furnace and a different influence on the processed material. Here, different scale formation and changed decarburization behavior could occur if the process is not optimally adjusted.
Hydrogen pipeline not yet available
The steel manufacturer had already noticed one challenge during the planning phase. For continuous hydrogen operation of a reheating furnace with a 10 MW capacity, a connection to a hydrogen pipeline would be necessary. However, this is currently not feasible in Germany.
The steel company therefore decided to convert a smaller reheating furnace at the Krefeld site for the project. This furnace only has a maximum connected load of 2 MW and can therefore also be supplied with hydrogen from tank facilities.
Adaptation only necessary with higher H2 content
The project team also wants to develop scenarios for the future. If only small amounts of hydrogen are available in the long term, it would be necessary to resort to a natural gas-hydrogen mixture. Therefore, the impact of such mixtures with different hydrogen contents on the furnace infrastructure is also being investigated.
So far, the company assumes that a small proportion of hydrogen will work with the existing furnace configuration. Only with higher proportions would adjustments to the fittings and the measurement and control technology be necessary.
