In cooperation with two universities, thyssenkrupp Steel Europe is testing the recycling of CO2 directly in a process dubbed NuCOWin, Kallanish has learned.
Its R&D partners are the Universität Duisburg-Essen (UDE) and the Clausthal University of Technology. The aim of the project is to answer the fundamental questions of process and plant technology for implementation on an industrial scale, UDE says in a statement. It notes that NuCoWin is intended as a transitory concept until the industry takes its big step with the transition to hydrogen-based DRI production.
“The big challenge is to develop economic processes within the transformation in the steel industry, but also in other industrial sectors, that no longer release CO2 into the atmosphere,” explains project leader Professor Rüdiger Deike from the UDE Institute for Technologies of Metals. “To do this, one should understand: due to their high energy density, carbon compounds will continue to be indispensable, but the CO2 will remain in the cycle.”
Within the funding programme KlimPro for the avoidance of climate-relevant process emissions in industry, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the project for three years with a total of €1.2 million ($1.2m).
Christian Koehl Germany
