Pimm, AJ orcid.org/0000-0002-1529-7762, Cockerill, TT orcid.org/0000-0001-7914-2340 and Gale, WF orcid.org/0000-0002-9627-7287 (2021) Energy system requirements of fossil-free steelmaking using hydrogen direct reduction. Journal of Cleaner Production, 312. 127665. ISSN 0959-6526
Abstract
The iron and steel industry is one of the world's largest industrial emitters of greenhouse gases. One promising option for decarbonising the industry is hydrogen direct reduction of iron (H-DR) with electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking, powered by zero carbon electricity. However, to date, little attention has been given to the energy system requirements of adopting such a highly energy-intensive process. This study integrates a newly developed long-term energy system planning tool, with a thermodynamic process model of H-DR/EAF steelmaking developed by Vogl et al. (2018), to assess the optimal combination of generation and storage technologies needed to provide a reliable supply of electricity and hydrogen. The modelling tools can be applied to any country or region and their use is demonstrated here by application to the UK iron and steel industry as a case study. It is found that the optimal energy system comprises 1.3 GW of electrolysers, 3 GW of wind power, 2.5 GW of solar, 60 MW of combined cycle gas with carbon capture, 600 GWh/600 MW of hydrogen storage, and 30 GWh/130 MW of compressed air energy storage. The hydrogen storage requirements of the industry can be significantly reduced by maintaining some dispatchable generation, for example from 600 GWh with no restriction on dispatchable generation to 140 GWh if 20% of electricity demand is met using dispatchable generation. The marginal abatement costs of a switch to hydrogen-based steelmaking are projected to be less than carbon price forecasts within 5–10 years.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
Keywords: | Iron & steel; Industrial decarbonisation; Emissions; Hydrogen; United Kingdom |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemical & Process Engineering (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mechanical Engineering (Leeds) > Institute of Engineering Thermofluids, Surfaces & Interfaces (iETSI) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) Not Known |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 10 Jun 2021 10:24 |
Last Modified: | 08 Jan 2025 15:34 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127665 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:175078 |
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