Source: Energy & Management Powernews, April 21, 2022
The Salzgitter steel group has achieved a new record efficiency with its high-temperature electrolyzer installed since 2020, according to its own information.
With green hydrogen, Salzgitter wants to replace coking coal in the steel production process. The pig iron should then no longer be produced in the blast furnace, but by hydrogen-based direct reduction. To this end, the Group and partners have been testing the production of hydrogen in a high-temperature electrolyzer from the Dresden-based manufacturer Sunfire on its premises since 2020. The electrolyzer reached an "important milestone" in the spring, as the steel group now announced in a statement on April 19.
For the first time, the electrolyzer based on pressurized alkali and solid oxide technology (SOEC) had produced 200 standard cubic meters of green hydrogen per hour. An efficiency of 84% had been achieved, he said. "No one before us has achieved this on this scale," emphasizes Simon Kroop from Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung. Other electrolysis technologies (alkali, PEM) would only achieve 60% each, Salzgitter AG says.
Konstantin Schwarze, Head of Large Systems Product Development at Sunfire, explains, "The plant runs at operating temperatures of 850 degrees Celcius and uses steam from the waste heat of steel production in Salzgitter." As a result, he says, it requires much less electricity than conventional technologies to produce large quantities of green hydrogen.
The trial operation of the SOEC electrolyzer is underway in the EU-funded hydrogen project "GrInHy2.0," which is affiliated with the "Salcos" (Salzgitter Low CO2 Steelmaking) research program. In addition to Sunfire, Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung and Salzgitter Flachstahl, the project partners also include the plant manufacturers Tenova and SMS Group. The French research institution CEA (Commissariat a l'energie atomique et aux energies) is also involved in the project.
Author: Davina Spohn