Integration of SMRs with Steel Industry
(2022) MVKM01 20221Department of Energy Sciences
- Abstract
- The steel industry is with its high emissions an important sector to transform from fossil-fueled to fossil-free. In recent years, the technology development has accelerated quickly regarding iron ore reduction using hydrogen produced from electrolysis within the EL-DRP-EAF steel production route. However, it is problematic that the energy supply for the majority of the efforts made within the green transition, steel production included, is to come from electricity. In this study it is investigated if it is possible to reduce the primary energy demand of the EL-DRP-EAF route by using direct heat integration of hot SMR steam into the process. A beneficial design of such a system is proposed and later on modeled in order to find out how much... (More)
- The steel industry is with its high emissions an important sector to transform from fossil-fueled to fossil-free. In recent years, the technology development has accelerated quickly regarding iron ore reduction using hydrogen produced from electrolysis within the EL-DRP-EAF steel production route. However, it is problematic that the energy supply for the majority of the efforts made within the green transition, steel production included, is to come from electricity. In this study it is investigated if it is possible to reduce the primary energy demand of the EL-DRP-EAF route by using direct heat integration of hot SMR steam into the process. A beneficial design of such a system is proposed and later on modeled in order to find out how much SMR steam that is needed to produce 1 ton of DRI. It is found that the primary energy demand can be reduced compared to other systems, with direct heat integration of hot SMR steam as what makes the difference. Though, the result is sensitive to somewhat unsimilar assumptions and system boundaries of the compared modelings. Lastly, scaling of the system result is performed based on the Swedish DRI production rate. As the energy demand is vast, the suggestion is made that the nearby located SMRs could be used for direct heat integration only, whilst the remaining energy demand in the form of electricity could be taken from the grid. That would allow for a mix of energy sources and still lead to the reduction in energy demand. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- There is a lot going on right now regarding transitioning the high-emitting steel industry from fossil-fueled to fossil-free. However, when transitioned the electricity demand of steel production will be vast. This study finds out that the energy demand of fossil-free steel production can be reduced if integrating Small Modular Reactors into the production process.
Fossil-free steel production uses hydrogen instead of coal to transform the iron ore to iron. Thereby, the emissions become water instead of carbon dioxide. The technology development has accelerated quickly in recent years and the process is now close to becoming reality in a large scale. But, to be able to call the process fossil-free it is crucial that the hydrogen is... (More) - There is a lot going on right now regarding transitioning the high-emitting steel industry from fossil-fueled to fossil-free. However, when transitioned the electricity demand of steel production will be vast. This study finds out that the energy demand of fossil-free steel production can be reduced if integrating Small Modular Reactors into the production process.
Fossil-free steel production uses hydrogen instead of coal to transform the iron ore to iron. Thereby, the emissions become water instead of carbon dioxide. The technology development has accelerated quickly in recent years and the process is now close to becoming reality in a large scale. But, to be able to call the process fossil-free it is crucial that the hydrogen is produced in an electrolysis running on fossil-free electricity. It is problematic that the energy supply for the majority of the efforts made within the green transition, steel production included, is to come from electricity. That makes this study very interesting, as a reduced energy demand of fossil-free steel production would increase its chances of becoming reality in a larger scale across the world. Since the steel industry today constitutes 7 % of the world´s greenhouse gas emissions, a large scale transition of it would make a great impact in cutting worldwide emissions.
It is already known that operating the fossil-free steel production process with a high temperature electrolysis can reduce the energy demand of steel production by 21 % compared to operating it with a low temperature electrolysis, due to the possibilities of introducing waste heat integration and by-product utilization into the high temperature electrolysis. This project finds out that the energy demand can be further reduced, by 36 % compared to the operation on low temperature electrolysis, if operating on high temperature electrolysis and integrating the steam produced from SMRs directly into the process. The SMR steam is directly sent into the electrolysis (to be turned into hydrogen and oxygen), it is used for heating in several parts of the steel production process and to produce the electricity needed to run the electrolysis. What is beneficial about the direct heat integration is that the energy does not have to go from hot SMR steam, to electricity, to heat again and in that way losing overall efficiency.
The heat demand of the steel industry is vast and constant. This study has shown that SMRs are very suitable to supply the steel industry with energy in the form of heat, hydrogen and electricity, resulting in nice overall energy efficiency advantages. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9104120
- author
- Carlsén, David LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MVKM01 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Small Modular Reactor, SMR, Xe-100, Pink Hydrogen, Electrolysis, SOEC, Steel, Iron, DRI, DRP, Energy, Industry, Transition
- report number
- LUTMDN/TMHP-22/5509-SE
- ISSN
- 0282-1990
- language
- English
- id
- 9104120
- date added to LUP
- 2022-12-20 14:22:38
- date last changed
- 2022-12-20 14:22:38
@misc{9104120,
abstract = {{The steel industry is with its high emissions an important sector to transform from fossil-fueled to fossil-free. In recent years, the technology development has accelerated quickly regarding iron ore reduction using hydrogen produced from electrolysis within the EL-DRP-EAF steel production route. However, it is problematic that the energy supply for the majority of the efforts made within the green transition, steel production included, is to come from electricity. In this study it is investigated if it is possible to reduce the primary energy demand of the EL-DRP-EAF route by using direct heat integration of hot SMR steam into the process. A beneficial design of such a system is proposed and later on modeled in order to find out how much SMR steam that is needed to produce 1 ton of DRI. It is found that the primary energy demand can be reduced compared to other systems, with direct heat integration of hot SMR steam as what makes the difference. Though, the result is sensitive to somewhat unsimilar assumptions and system boundaries of the compared modelings. Lastly, scaling of the system result is performed based on the Swedish DRI production rate. As the energy demand is vast, the suggestion is made that the nearby located SMRs could be used for direct heat integration only, whilst the remaining energy demand in the form of electricity could be taken from the grid. That would allow for a mix of energy sources and still lead to the reduction in energy demand.}},
author = {{Carlsén, David}},
issn = {{0282-1990}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Integration of SMRs with Steel Industry}},
year = {{2022}},
}