Regular Article

Rolling mill decarbonization: Tenova SmartBurners with 100% hydrogen^☆

¹ Tenova, Genova, Italy
² Tenova, Castellanza, Italy

^* e-mail: alessandro.dellarocca@tenova.com

Received: 24 January 2022
Accepted: 7 February 2022

Abstract

The European Green Deal, the Paris COP21 agreement, the EU roadmap for a competitive low-carbon economy in 2050 and more recently the “Fit for 55” package set the targets of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for several sectors. In this context, hydrogen will be relevant as a feedstock, fuel and energy storage solution. Today hydrogen use in steel industry is limited to annealing processes on a small quantity, therefore a complete transformation of the steelmaking production route from liquid steel process (Upstream) up to the rolling and finishing line (Downstream) requires development and validation of new technologies. The massive usage of hydrogen in steel industry is envisioned in the Carbon Direct Avoidance pathway reported in the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) of the Private Public Partnership Clean Steel. The paper presents the Tenova SmartBurner technology: TSX recuperative flameless for reheating applications ready to use hydrogen as fuel (up to 100%), with nitric oxides reached in the operative range from 100% natural gas to 100% hydrogen – well below the next envisioned limits (80 mg/Nm³ at 5% of O₂ with furnace at 1250 °C).