Thyssenkrupp tests hydrogen as PCI replacement

German steel producer Thyssenkrupp began testing hydrogen in a working blast furnace this week as a replacement for pulverised coal injection (PCI) grade as the company aims to be carbon neutral by 2050.

In the first such test on an industrial scale, the company injected hydrogen into one of the 28 tuyeres of blast furnace 9 in Duisburg, Germany in place of PCI. Thyssenkrupp aims to gradually use hydrogen in all 28 tuyeres of the blast furnace, then expanding its use to three other blast furnaces by 2022.

"We are doing pioneering work here. The use of hydrogen is the key lever for climate-neutral steel production," said the chairman of Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe Premal Desai.

Burning hydrogen in the blast furnace generates water vapour instead of carbon dioxide when coal is used. Hydrogen is itself produced through water electrolysis but the company aims to source hydrogen produced with renewable energy.

Around 200kg of metallurgical coke and 300kg of PCI is needed to produce one tonne of pig iron in Thyssenkrupp's blast furnaces. It is already therefore possible to reduce the company's carbon emissions by 20pc if hydrogen is rolled out as a PCI replacement, Thyssenkrupp said.

Following the conversion of its blast furnaces, the company plans to build large-scale direct reduction plants in the mid-2020s, which by then then be operating with hydrogen-containing gases. The sponge iron they produce will initially be melted down in the existing blast furnaces, but in the long term will be processed into crude steel in electric arc furnaces using renewable energy.

By Greg Holt