Wave energy instrumental to decarbonising steel, study finds

Wave energy will play an instrumental role helping decarbonise the steel industry, by being used to create green hydrogen to make green steel, according to a study by CorPower Ocean, Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa (IST) and a global green steel manufacturer.

Green hydrogen production requires electrolysers to split water into oxygen and hydrogen using renewable energy. However, this remains a complex process due to the amount of energy required while matching the supply and demand for green hydrogen. With nuclear and hydro potential heavily exploited, a broader mix of baseload renewables are needed to support intermittent wind and solar resources, in order to deliver 24/7 carbon-free energy, CorPower Ocean says in a note seen by Kallanish.

Ocean energy can plug that void as a consistent, reliable and scalable power source, it adds.

The recent academic study focused on the running requirements of a 1GW electrolyser at a potential European green steel production facility, for 90% of the year. More than 800 simulations were performed calculating the optimised installed capacity of renewable energy, as well as purchases and sales to the grid.

It concluded that combining complementary renewable energy sources – such as land-based wind and solar with ocean-based wave power – led to a more stable and consistent power source to create green hydrogen. This meant significant reductions could be achieved in installed capacity required and cost of energy.

Introducing wave energy can help to halve the requirement of installed production capacity and lower the cost of energy by 26%, CorPower Ocean observes.

In Europe alone the annual steel energy demand sits at 300TWh per year. The European Parliamentary research service has stated that producing the necessary amounts of hydrogen for a full decarbonisation of the steel industry would require an increase in electricity production of the order of 20%.

Adam Smith Poland