The decarbonisation of energy-intensive industry sectors is key to achieving climate targets as well as one of the biggest challenges along the way, and the steel industry has a vital role to play here. Steelmaking uses fossil fuels (coke, coal and natural gas). Its production processes require very high temperatures and large amounts of energy and make up a large share of total carbon emissions.
voestalpine, the world’s leading steel and technology corporation, is pursuing an ambitious multi-stage plan for climate-neutral steelmaking that it calls “greentec steel”.1 The group has also partnered with researchers to develop climate-friendly production technologies based on renewable electricity and hydrogen. Besides the production of crude steel, therefore, it is also tackling the decarbonisation of steel processing head on.
Carbon-neutral heating for industrial furnaces
Steel processing requires a lot of energy, with natural gas accounting for nearly 30 per cent of the voestalpine Group’s final energy consumption. Most of this gas is needed to heat up primary products to make them malleable and/or bring about microstructural changes. Various kinds of gas-fired industrial furnaces are currently in use on forging, hot rolling or press hardening production lines.
The NEFI Green Steel2 project is devising solutions for replacing natural gas with carbon-neutral energy carriers for a wide range of products, including furnaces. One key aim of the project is to supply 5,000 GWh a year of carbon-neutral energy carriers such as green electricity, hydrogen, biogas and synthetic fuels, to be available around the clock, 365 days a year. This relates to facilities in Austria as well as import options.
In a second step, the project will investigate the possibility of converting these renewable energy carriers into heat using sophisticated electrical heaters and multi-fuel burners to be developed as part of it. This will enable a sustainable and efficient process to be guaranteed. The industrial-scale solutions required to supply carbon-neutral energy carriers and convert them into heat for heating various different industrial furnaces are to be devised at 14 pilot sites operated by voestalpine.
The NEFI Green Steel project will also focus on implementing energy efficiency measures such as insulation, process optimisation and the utilisation of waste heat in order to cut overall energy consumption. Selected furnaces at various voestalpine sites in Austria, Germany and Sweden will then be converted in order to trial these solutions.
Milestones in the NEFI Green Steel project
> Calculating the potential for carbon-neutral alternatives to natural gas and evaluating the scope for producing and transporting them
> Devising concepts for reducing energy consumption and harnessing the potential offered by waste heat, and implementing these in selected direct- and indirect-fired furnaces
> Trialling selected direct-firing-compatible industrial furnaces in an industrial setting and the impact of carbon-neutral firing on product quality
> Developing high-efficiency burners powered by various carbon-neutral fuels and conducting experimental tests in an industrial setting
> Sharing expertise within and outside the voestalpine Group
www.nefi.at/de/projekt/greensteel-carbon-neutral-steel-processing-via-alternatives-to-fossil-natural-gas
1 www.voestalpine.com/greentecsteel/en
2 Project partners: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology (project management), AICHELIN GmbH, Buderus Edelstahl, NOXMAT GmbH, Uddeholms AB, Villares metals, voestalpine Automotive Components Schwäbisch Gmünd GmbH & Co KG, voestalpine Böhler Aerospace GmbH & Co KG, voestalpine Böhler Bleche GmbH & Co KG, voestalpine Böhler Edelstahl GmbH & Co KG, voestalpine Böhler Profil GmbH, voestalpine Metal Forming GmbH, voestalpine Rail Technology GmbH, voestalpine Rotec GmbH, voestalpine Stahl Donawitz GmbH, voestalpine Tubulars GmbH & Co KG, voestalpine Wire Rod Austria GmbH
NEFI Green Steel is part of the NEFI (New Energy for Industry) model region, which is promoting the decarbonisation of industrial companies through innovation and technology development.
www.nefi.at
