November 2022 Volume 4

MATERIALS

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The project is part of the company’s target to reduce the carbon intensity of the steel it produces by 25 percent by 2030. The $1.3 billion project will change the way steel is made at ArcelorMittal Dofasco, transitioning the site to direct reduced-iron electric-arc furnace (DRI-EAF) steelmaking. The company’s new DRI furnace will initially operate on natural gas but will be constructed so it can be transitioned to utilize green hydrogen as a clean energy input when a sufficient, cost-effective supply of green hydrogen becomes available. There’s an even bigger project started in Boden, Sweden (see sidebar), in which Harald Mix and Carl-Erik Lagerkrantz started H2 green steel and recently broke ground on a near carbon-free steelmaking facility. H2 green steel’s Chief Commercial Officer is Mark Bula, an American executive who moved to Sweden to be part of this project. His comment offers insightful perspective: “What I found when I arrived to work in Europe was that there is more of a demand for green decarbonized product across all industrial sectors here. Industries are making more willing commitments to sustainability than what I had been used to.” Closer to Home The manufacturing sector recognizes the challenges its products and processes can have on GHG emissions and the environment. Steel producers, all of which supply the forging and other metalworking industries, are increasingly engaged in planning and/or executing their sustainability and decarbonization plans. About a year ago, for example, Nucor Corp. launched its Econiq product certification platform–what they bill as the world’s first net zero steel. In this context, net-zero means that any GHGs released into the atmosphere are balanced by an equivalent amount being removed.This certification addresses Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions: Scope 1 refers to direct emissions from the steelmaking process; Scope 2 refers to indirect emissions from generation of the energy used in the process. Econiq is made using 100 percent renewable energy (Scope 2), with Scope 1 emissions eliminated through the purchase of carbon offsets. Separately, United States Steel Corp., Equinor US Holdings Inc., and Shell US Gas & Power LLC recently announced a non exclusive agreement to advance a collaborative clean energy hub in the Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania region. The hub will focus on decarbonization opportunities that feature carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS), as well as hydrogen production and utilization. The expectation is that this hub and its associated infrastructure would stimulate economic growth and achieve significant reductions in carbon emissions. The regional CCUS and hydrogen hub aligns with both the United States’ and project partners’ ambitions to realize net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. To support its development, Equinor and Shell will jointly apply for DOE funding designated for the creation of regional clean energy hubs. The Washington, DC-based Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) represents the electric arc furnace (EAF) steel industry, which accounts for 70 percent of domestic steel made today. EAF steel

uses electrical currents to melt scrap steel and other metals, which is far more efficient than traditional steelmaking. In its recently released annual report, SMA president Philip Bell wrote: “With over 15 million tons of new EAF capacity coming online between now and 2024, the future looks incredibly bright. Soon, EAFs will represent over 80 percent of steelmaking capacity in the U.S. … The domestic steel industry must continue to meet the challenges of creating a lower carbon future. People need to know that not all steel is created equal. Foreign steel is often produced at a lower cost due to unregulated alloy levels and less rigorous testing standards. American EAF steel, because it is held to a higher standard, is the gateway to a cleaner, more prosperous planet.” Is a Hydrogen Fuel Economy in Our Future? Fives North American Combustion, Inc. (FNAC), Cleveland, Ohio, is a specialist in combustion technology well-known to the heat treating and forging industries. We spoke with Justin Dzik, the company’s Director of Innovation and Business Development. “For many years we’ve had burners that reduce fuel consumption, called regenerative burners, which use exhaust gases passed through regenerative media stored in the burner and work in pairs. These reduce NO x and CO2 emissions and improve process efficiency,” he said. “But the trend now is to get away from carbon-based fuels, and as a company we have been investigating hydrogen since we think it could eventually win the day.” To be sure, hydrogen offers many advantages as a fuel source. It is bountiful throughout the universe, and it is renewable. It can be produced onsite, and it is non-toxic. The only by-product of its combustion is water. And it burns hotter than natural gas. But it also has its drawbacks. Hydrogen is expensive, and its separation is mostly dependent on electricity generated by burning fossil fuels. Hydrogen is so light that it must be greatly compressed and liquefied to act as a useful store of energy. Even in this form, hazardous leak detection cannot be achieved by smell, as with natural gas; sensors and alarms are required. Also, hydrogen is so light that threaded pipelines cannot safely contain it. It also has an affinity and reactivity with certain metals, so it is best fed through seamless welded stainless steel piping systems to transfer hydrogen from storage to its application. Justin Dzik says that there is a lot of research going on with the supply-side of hydrogen as a future fuel source. Anecdotally, he recalls that, “We fired hydrogen in our lab recently and realized we needed more hydrogen onsite to run these tests, so we recently poured a concrete slab to have a hydrogen tanker on site with sufficient hydrogen to run more meaningful tests. We fired the hydrogen through our existing regenerative burners, but dedicated hydrogen burners are on the drawing boards.” In keeping with current thinking about hydrogen’s future potential, an October release from Air Products announced its plans to invest $500 million to build, own and operate a 35-metric-ton/day facility to produce green liquid hydrogen at a greenfield site in Massena, N.Y. Commercial operation of this facility is targeted to begin in 2026-2027. Air Products is also investigating the feasibility of

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