German steelmaker Badische Stahlwerke GmbH (BSW) has announced that it has started a research project in cooperation with its subsidiary Badische Stahl-Engineering GmbH (BSE) and RWTH Aachen University to develop a new burner technology for hydrogen use at electric arc furnace (EAF)-based steel plants. This way, the company not only intends to cut its carbon emissions but also to contribute to the collective decarbonization of the industry.
The project, to which the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action is providing funds of €2.3 million, is expected to last three years. Under the project, the partners will develop a new burner technology, allowing the flexible use of hydrogen or ammonia as fuel in order to reduce or completely stop natural gas usage in the future. After the development phase, BSW will test and optimize the technology at its test plant.
“The burner technology to be developed is a pioneer for the transformation to the production of green steel. It not only guarantees efficient and low-emission operation when completely switching to hydrogen or ammonia, but also offers great advantages along the way when the availability of both gases is initially limited. This is because hydrogen or ammonia can be flexibly mixed with fossil fuels in the system without any adjustments to the systems being necessary,” the official statement read.
BSW, which is considered to be the most energy efficient steelmaker in Europe with its 80 percent less carbon emissions than conventional producers with blast furnaces, aims to be carbon neutral by 2045.
