Our colleagues Lilly Schulte and Carsten Gondorf, as part of the project DevH2forEAF — Developing and enabling H2 burner utilization to produce liquid steel in EAF — funded by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS), carried out a test campaign at the department’s electric arc furnace (EAF) in Kohlscheid in the week from 15th to 19th July 2024.
Following the burner tests in open environment already carried out in November 2022 to test the usage of hydrogen as a fuel in the EAF burner, a one-week test campaign has now taken place. The aim was to prepare and analyze a different fuel composition each day.
In order to be able to use the EAF for the tests after a long waiting period, some preparations had to be made in advance: Due to initial difficulties, the tests could only be carried out with a fuel composition of 100% hydrogen. The aim of the test campaign was to clarify the influence of a hydrogen burner in the EAF on the molten steel, since the steel cannot meet the industry’s quality standards if the hydrogen content is too high.
As part of the DevH2forEAF project, a burner for the EAF has been developed that can run on hydrogen as well as natural gas. After some initial difficulties, the tests were carried out exclusively with a fuel composition of 100% hydrogen. The aim of the series of tests was to clarify the influence of a hydrogen burner in the electric arc furnace on the molten steel, since the steel cannot meet the industry’s quality standards if the hydrogen content is too high.
Figure left: Electric arc furnace, top right: Installation of the burner in the electric arc furnace,
bottom right: View of the electrode and arc in the furnace
As the project progresses, the forthcoming steel analyses and separate analyses to determine hydrogen pick-up will provide important insights that will enable the use of hydrogen burners in the LBO on an industrial scale.
On Thursday, the project partners from the SMS Group, including Jürgen Odenthal from SMS Mönchengladbach and Jacopo Greguoldo and Fabio Vecchiet from SMS Italy, were able to see the EAF for themselves and were very enthusiastic about the successful completion of the tests on the electric arc furnace.
More news articles and information about the electric arc furnace: