H2BURN: THE GF-ELTI NEW INNOVATIVE PROJECT PRESENTED AT “MADE IN STEEL”

On 6^th October, in the important context of the Made in Steel exhibition, GF-ELTI launched H2Burn: the last and innovative project of our Company, aiming at reducing CO₂ emissions in an energy-intensive industry, like the steel one.

The goal of H2BURN is to ensure, thanks to High Efficiency and innovative burners powered with a blend composed by Hydrogen (H₂) and Methane (CH₄), called Hydro-Methane, the possible use of this blend with H₂ in variable percentages, up to 100%.

Matteo Macario, Market Strategy & Business Development Manager, and Marco Teani, H2Burn Project Manager, talked about it in a recent interview with Siderweb.

The realisation of the project was possible thanks to the combination of different factors for success.

Firstly, a top-level team has been set up, that merged the precious support offered by Professor Marco Nicola Carcassi (University of Pisa) with in-home skills of a workgroup constituted by Engineers and Technicians, with multiple and heterogeneous backgrounds: R&D, Environment, Efficiency, Energy, Combustion, Plant Engineering.

The project has also took advantage of the previous experiences, acquired since the 1980s, in the design and construction of Industrial Plants powered by waste gas resulting from integrated steelworks, such as coke gas, characterized by the presence of Hydrogen in concentrations of up to 60% and Methane in concentrations of about 25%.

On the basis of this premises, tests were carried out on two furnaces on an industrial-scale: a first furnace specific for heat treatment and a second one specific for forging service, both equipped with some burners powered by Hydro-Methane and some others with traditional Methane.

The simultaneous running of the two different types of burners, made it possible to carry out important comparative analyses aimed at verifying the goodness of the technical functional parameters. In addition, the measurements carried out on environmental emissions, like the NOx, CO and CO₂, have made it possible to obtain valuable data for the implementation of the developed technology.

Our Company, since always sensitive to the environment, wants to make the Hydro-Methane combustion non only a tool for sustainable development, but also an achievable goal from a plant-engineering point of view. Thanks to H2Burn devices, integrated with the mixing unit developed in-home, it is possible to choose, real time, the composition of the Hydro-Methane blend, thus becoming independent, in whole or in part, from the market logic.

Therefore, H2Burn expresses our contribution to the decarbonisation efforts, aimed at increasing the efficiency and sustainability of the steel industry.