Abstract
The iron and steel industry is one of the world's largest industrial emitters of greenhouse gases. One promising option for decarbonising the industry is hydrogen direct reduction of iron (H-DR) with electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking, powered by zero carbon electricity. However, to date, little attention has been given to the energy system requirements of adopting such a highly energy-intensive process. This study integrates a newly developed long-term energy system planning tool, with a thermodynamic process model of H-DR/EAF steelmaking developed by Vogl et al. (2018), to assess the optimal combination of generation and storage technologies needed to provide a reliable supply of electricity and hydrogen. The modelling tools can be applied to any country or region and their use is demonstrated here by application to the UK iron and steel industry as a case study. It is found that the optimal energy system comprises 1.3 GW of electrolysers, 3 GW of wind power, 2.5 GW of solar, 60 MW of combined cycle gas with carbon capture, 600 GWh/600 MW of hydrogen storage, and 30 GWh/130 MW of compressed air energy storage. The hydrogen storage requirements of the industry can be significantly reduced by maintaining some dispatchable generation, for example from 600 GWh with no restriction on dispatchable generation to 140 GWh if 20% of electricity demand is met using dispatchable generation. The marginal abatement costs of a switch to hydrogen-based steelmaking are projected to be less than carbon price forecasts within 5–10 years.
Highlights
Iron and steel is the industrial sector with the highest level of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately 7% of global CO2 emissions (Philibert, 2017)
To determine the costs and emissions associated with hydrogen direct reduction of iron (H-DR)/electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking, and the combinations of energy system technologies that can provide a firm supply of electricity and hydrogen, a newly devel oped energy system cost optimisation tool is integrated with an existing thermodynamic process model
While it is known to be highly energy-intensive, the energy system re quirements and costs have not previously been considered in detail. We have addressed this gap in the knowledge through a case study on the United Kingdom, the methods employed are applicable to any country
Summary
Iron and steel is the industrial sector with the highest level of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately 7% of global CO2 emissions (Philibert, 2017). Over 1.8 billion tonnes of steel are manufactured worldwide every year, the bulk of which is produced using the traditional blast furnace-basic oxygen steelmaking (BF-BOS) approach (World Steel Association., 2020). The industry is heavily reliant upon coal to produce coke as a reducing agent in blast furnaces and to provide heat and electricity, and as such around 1.8 tonnes of CO2 are released per tonne of steel produced (World Steel Association., 2019). Increasing numbers of countries and regions around the world are committed to heavy reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, with 2019 seeing the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand and Denmark all enshrine net zero emissions targets in law, and the EU agree a bloc deal for net zero which was subsequently presented to the UN (Darby, 2019). Clean Energy Innovation. 2020) for two to three decades to come
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