Assessment for Replacing Coal and Petroleum Product with Green Hydrogen for Steel and Iron Production

Abstract

Among the leading global contributors to anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, the iron and steel industries are energy-intensive sectors. This is due to the fact that fuel and iron ore are reduced using non-renewable energy sources like coal and charcoal. A tonne of iron is produced, and that produces roughly 1.9 tonnes of CO₂ gas. It is necessary to switch to clean energy sources from conventional carbon-emitting sources in order to lower emissions from the iron and steel industry. Hydrogen is a substitute fuel that has the potential to replace carbon-emitting fuel in the iron and steel sectors, according to the present trend in clean energy development. Hydrogen can be employed as a reducing agent in blast furnaces as an auxiliary or as the only reducing agent in the direct reduction process, which is how iron and steel are produced. Water is the only byproduct of the electrolysis process, which creates green hydrogen using renewable energy sources. In the iron industry, using green hydrogen can lower intensive carbon emissions. Green steel or iron production costs can be competitive and less carbon intensive if the cost of producing green hydrogen is low. In this paper, the steel and iron production from green hydrogen is studied to contribute to developing the conceptual design along with challenges for handling the hydrogen in these industries and compared with the conventional carbon-based process. In addition, the economic assessment for the production of steel from a green hydrogen-based process.