Quantifying the energy saving potential and environmental benefit of hydrogen-based steelmaking process: Status and future prospect

The application of hydrogen is considered to be an effectiveg way for decarbonising the iron and steel industry. This research aims to quantifying the energy saving potential and environmental benefit of two hydrogen-based steelmaking processes through exergy analysis and life cycle assessment: hydrogen-enriched shaft furnace electric furnace (HESE) process based on coal gasification and hydrogen shaft furnace-electric furnace (HSE) process based on water electrolysis. It is estimated that the energy consumption and CO2 emission of the HESE process are 11.82 GJ/t and 1121.28 kg/t, achieving a 39.79% of energy-saving and a 45.42% of CO2 emission reduction when compared with the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) process. The research goes further to evaluate the future HSE process of its energy saving potential and environmental benefit. When renewable electricity is applied, the HSE process will have relatively low carbon emission (i.e. 120.92 kg). However, the energy consumption reaches 13.42 GJ with an exergy efficiency of 33.91%. A key feature of the process lies in the power consumption, which can be balanced through the share of scrap used, and its future links with the prosperity of hydrogen economy. The present work should do helpful effort to the carbon neutral goal of iron and steel industry.

Automated summary

This research analyzes and evaluates the energy-saving potential and environmental benefits of two hydrogen-based steelmaking processes, finding that they can significantly reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions compared to traditional blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace process. The study also evaluates the future potential of the HSE process and identifies the use of renewable electricity as a way to reduce carbon emissions.