Hydrogen technologies for decarbonization of industrial heating processes

The integration of hydrogen combustion to an industrial scale still needs adoption and redesign of infrastructure, equipment and the process itself. To this end, HyInHeat aims towards hydrogen combustion systems in order to decarbonize heating and melting processes of the aluminium and steel sectors. During the project, furnaces and equipment like burners or measurement and control technology together with infrastructure will be redesigned, modified and implemented. Since these actions relate to critical production processes, HyInHeat will also assess the importance to maintain product quality and yield in this change towards H2-based heating. From an environmental perspective, new concepts for NOx emission measurement in hydrogen combustion off-gas will be developed. Combined with material flow analysis and life cycle analysis methods, HyInHeat contributes to the objectives of decreasing CO2 emission of the processes while increasing energy efficiency in a cost competitive way whilst keeping NOx emission levels and resource efficiency at least at the same level.

The research at the University of Oulu focuses on two topics:

1. developing on-line process control tools for the heating processes with optical emission spectroscopy and advanced data analytics
2. studying the effect of H2 on the scale formation in the new atmosphere

The development of process control tools aims towards increased efficiency of the H2-burning by determining the state of the flame, such as composition and temperature, and finding out optimal procedures to operate the flames. Since the changing atmosphere will affect the scale formation and thus also the quality of the end-product, the scale formation research is dedicated to assessing this effect and finding out what can be done to maintain sthe product quality.