Sheffield steel sharpens to green hydrogen future

Sheffield

The early stages of the project found strong desire from steelmakers and other industries to find a cleaner alternative to natural gas in industrial processes. Switching steelmaking to being fuelled by hydrogen could be commercially viable, the project found, and sustainable over the longer term. It could maintain the performance and product quality for manufacturers with carbon emissions 41.8% lower than if using natural gas. That means the three manufacturers taking part in the initial trials could save around 3,500 tonnes of CO₂ each year.

HYDESS project (Hydrogen for the decarbonisation of Sheffield steel)

• Project owner: EON UK CHP LTD
• Partners: Chesterfield Special Cylinders, Sheffield Forgemasters, Glass Futures, University of Sheffield
• Location: Sheffield
• Amount being awarded: £936,758.04

Project description

The ‘Hydrogen for the Decarbonisation of Sheffield Steel” (HYDESS) project is assessing the technical and commercial feasibility for end-to-end hydrogen production, transport and end-use in the steel manufacturing industry. The project is led by E.ON and is a partnership with Chesterfield Special Cylinders (CSC), Sheffield Forgemasters (SFEL), Glass Futures (GF) and the University of Sheffield (UoS). Together they’re exploring how to establish a new technically and commercially viable pathway to convert from natural gas over to hydrogen for fuelling steel reheat and heat treatment furnaces. There will be a particular focus on understanding the impact of different blends and burners on commercial steel heating process performance and emission levels as part of a forging process.

Utilising hydrogen production through the electrolysis process, the project will produce hydrogen gas on site at E.ON’s Blackburn Meadows (BBM) biomass power station. The gas will then be stored and transported to local steel product manufacturers using road trailers that are designed and manufactured by CSC using steel cylinders forged on site at their Sheffield factory. This creates a local hydrogen economy whilst enabling these steel manufacturers to decarbonise, in line with their sustainability strategy and the growing demand for green steel.

https://www.eonenergy.com/About-eon/media-centre/exploring-green-hydrogen-sheffields-steelmakers/

Hydrogen for Steel