What Norsk Hydro did with hydrogen aluminum
Norsk Hydro produced the first batch of aluminum in Spain made with green hydrogen instead of gas. ArcelorMittal also operates in the country, which is working on the conversion of the Gijón steel plant to hydrogen
Yesterday the Norwegian company Norsk Hydro announced that it has produced the world's first batch of aluminum made with green hydrogen instead of natural gas. This is important news, because Norsk Hydro's process could help solve the problem of decarbonising the metallurgical industry, which consumes large quantities of fossil fuels and is difficult to power by electricity. Green hydrogen is a fuel with zero greenhouse gas emissions (except water vapour) which is obtained from electricity generated from renewable sources.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE NORSK HYDRO TEST
In a statement, Norsk Hydro said it replaced natural gas with green hydrogen during a test conducted at its aluminum extrusion plant in Navarra, Spain. The experimentation was carried out by Hydro Havrand, the Norsk company that deals with renewable hydrogen, together with Fives, a French engineering company specializing in hydrogen burners.
Before focusing on aluminium, Norsk Hydro worked on the decarbonisation of another energy-intensive and emission-intensive industry, that of fertilizers: it came to produce artificial fertilizers through an electrochemical process powered by hydroelectric energy that Norway, where it is based, possesses in abundance. The company operates the largest refinery of alumina (an oxide used to produce aluminum) in the world, in Brazil.
According to Per Christian Eriksen, head of Hydro Havrand, “green hydrogen can remove emissions that are difficult to abate from fossil fuels in processes where electricity is not an alternative [for the high temperatures required, for example, ed ] , both in the aluminum industry and in other heavy industries”. "This test," added Eriksen, "is part of the development of commercial solutions for fuel substitution and to demonstrate that hydrogen can be used in aluminum production." Hydro will release a trial report next fall.
The material obtained from Navarra will be used to produce the first extruded aluminum profiles made with hydrogen.
SPAIN AND LOW-CARBON METALLURGY
In addition to Norsk Hydro in Navarre, ArcelorMittal is also working on the conversion to hydrogen of one of its plants, also in Spain, in Gijón. In fact, the Luxembourg giant's steelworks will replace its two gas-fired blast furnaces with a plant for the direct reduction of iron using hydrogen and an electric arc furnace.
The new facilities are expected to come online in late 2025 and produce 2.3 million tonnes of direct reduction iron per year. Once completed, the project should save 70.9 million tons of carbon dioxide. ArcelorMittal is committed to sharing its technological know-how with other European steel producers.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/cosa-ha-fatto-norsk-hydro-con-lalluminio-da-idrogeno/ on Fri, 16 Jun 2023 10:24:04 +0000.