Also you should compare the natural gas hydrogen process to the currently used coke process.
That would make their process suitable for countries that barely produce any iron to begin with. Unlike countries actually responsible for a big chunk of the world's iron production¹, and heavily reliant on fossil fuels; such as China, Japan, India, Russia.
>Also you should compare the natural gas hydrogen process to the currently used coke process.
No, I shouldn't. For three reasons: a) everybody knows that the "traditional" coke process is nasty, and is looking for alternatives; b) other alternatives already exist, as syngas-based³; and 3) the resulting iron is slightly different in properties.
Could the method from the link become more attractive in the future? Sure. Even then I strongly suggest everyone to hold their horses before going "WOOO THAT BIZNIZ SAID THAT THEY'RE CHANGING THE WORLD!!1". There's no "exciting" development yet.
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1. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron#Industrial_production
2. Refer to https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/exports/share-electricity...
3. Note that syngas still uses coke, but as a DRI method it uses it more efficiently.
This assumes a zero-sum situation where we have a fixed amount of fossil free electricity, but that's unlikely because fossil free energy (solar specifically) is the cheapest type of electricity generation we can build today.
Furthermore, the hydrogen can be electrolyzed at times when the supply of fossil free energy exceeds demand, thereby actually improving the economics of intermittent renewables by increasing their overall utilization, and hence incentivizing building more if it.
Hydro, nuclear and wind is what northern Sweden uses.
> Solar is a very cheap form of electricity but it has some significant problems to overcome that far up north.
Why would the hydrogen-reduced steel need to only be produced in Northern Sweden? It could just as well be produced somewhere with abundant solar.
I'm not assuming a zero-sum. The concern still holds without a zero-sum situation, as long as some commonly used sources of energy are not fossil-free.
>but that's unlikely because fossil free energy (solar specifically) is the cheapest type of electricity generation we can build today.
Higher demand can increase prices. Usually this wouldn't be a problem, but considering how big the iron/steel production sector is, the impact of the electricity used for the H₂ be measured, not assumed.
>Furthermore, the hydrogen can be electrolyzed at times when the supply of fossil free energy exceeds demand, thereby actually improving the economics of intermittent renewables by increasing their overall utilization, and hence incentivizing building more if it.
That is actually a fair argument. Unlike the above.
Sure, but absent material supply constraints for production of PV and wind (of which none exist), supply will respond to that demand as it always has.
Using green hydrolyzed H2 for making steel makes more sense because our only alternative for steel is to use coal to produce it, which we know is terrible from a C02 emissions perspective.
But let's say that the hydrogen is from fossil-free electricity. You could be plugging that fossil-free electricity elsewhere instead. The press and media link does not mention that.
>Hydrogen-reduced carbon-free DRI is highly metallized
That can mean two things:
1. They're able to retrieve more iron from the oxide. Good, but it isn't enough to replace the current processes; at most to add hydrogen as the "chef's kiss" to the iron produced through another method.
2. Less cementite aka iron carbide aka the stuff that actually makes steel "steel" instead of plain iron. That's great or awful depending on application.
>has superior mechanical [...] properties
Again, it depends on application. I expect their iron to be rather soft and malleable, but lacking tensile strength.
>This new knowledge is a direct result of close value chain cooperation, determined innovative thinking and bold efforts in piloting new technology – a recipe to copy for other industrial sectors,”
>Hybrit Development AB has filed patent applications describing the included inventions to the European Patent Office.
"Guys, we made something to copy for other industrial sectors, except that we're smearing patents on it so you can't copy the process~".
There's another detail that the press and media link doesn't mention: hydrogen makes steel brittle.
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Take this link with a grain of salt.