The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action is funding two joint projects in which thyssenkrupp Rasselstein is participating.
The research projects are looking at how hydrogen fuel can reduce CO2 emissions in the steel industry, Kallanish learns from thyssenkrupp. Both projects deal with the use of hydrogen in the energy-intensive annealing processes of tinplate production. These processes are necessary to restore the crystalline structure of the material which is destroyed during cold rolling.
In the “FlexHeat2Anneal” research project, the focus is on the use of hydrogen in the continuous annealing line, in which the ultra-fine strip is unwound and recrystallised by running over rolls at a high temperature and in short cycle times.
Up to now, mostly natural gas has been used for annealing the strip. In the future, this fossil fuel is to be gradually replaced by adding green hydrogen. “The planned flexible use of hydrogen in the annealing process poses several issues. Hydrogen, for example, burns hotter than natural gas. That’s why the burners and radiant heating tubes have to be adjusted,” says Torsten Schmitt, electrical engineer responsible for strip line maintenance at thyssenkrupp Rasselstein.
The aim of the other project, named “H2-DisTherPro”, is to substitute fuel gases containing carbon with hydrogen in discontinuously operated thermos-processing plants.
Christian Koehl Germany
