Project description
Electric arc furnaces to reduce steelmaking emissions
The indispensability of steel in society and the need to protect the environment are at the basis of the steelmaking industry's decarbonisation. Clean steelmaking transition finds in electric arc furnaces (EAF) a key technology: it is at the basis of scrap-based steelmaking (a circular economy process) and of the new DRI-EAF route that is expected to replace the BF-BOF route. In this context, the EU-funded GreenHeatEAF project aims at further increasing the importance of EAF. The replacement of natural gas and other fossil energy sources with hydrogen or renewable carbon sources (e.g. biochar) is investigated. In addition, technologies to re-optimise the heating management with maximum heat recovery from off-gas and slag are explored. Coupling pilot tests with digital applications constitutes the strength of GreenHeatEAF.
Objective
EAF steelmaking is the key technology for decarbonised steelmaking, either in scrap-based plant by modification of existing processes for further decarbonisation, or as new EAF installations in decarbonised integrated steel works to (partly) replace the classical BF-BOF production. At same time the EAF is the most important example for modular and hybrid heating, already now combining electric arc heating with burner technologies. Consequently, it was selected as main focus of GreenHeatEAF for the Call „Modular and hybrid heating technologies in steel production“.
GreenHeatEAF develops and demonstrates the most important decarbonisation approaches at EAFs including the use of hydrogen to replace natural gas combustion in existing or re-vamped burners or innovative technologies like CoJet. Furthermore, decarbonisation of EAF steelmaking by solid materials like DRI/HBI and renewable carbon sources like biochar is tackled.
Technologies to re-optimise the heating management with maximum heat recovery of off-gas and slag employing new sensor and soft-sensor concepts as well as extended digital twins are developed: as result the extended CFD and flowsheeting models, and monitoring and control tools will prognose the influences of the different decarbonisation measures on EAF and process chain to support upcoming decarbonisation investments and to enable the control of decarbonised hybrid heating with maximum energy efficiency.
GreenHeatEAF combines trials in demonstration scale, e.g. in combustion- and EAF-demo plants, with validations in industrial scale and digital optimisations with high synergy. Thus, it completely follows the Horizon Twin Transition and Clean Steel Partnership objectives and the target to progress decarbonisation technologies from TRL 5 to 7. This synergic concept of GreenHeatEAF supports implementation and digitisation to speed up the transition of the European steel industry to highly competitive energy-efficient decarbonised steel productio
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Funding Scheme
HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation ActionsCoordinator
56127 Pisa
Italy