Prospects for the development of hydrogen technologies in the domestic metallurgy

Abstract

The inevitability of the development of carbon-free steel production technologies in the domestic metallurgy is due not only under the pressure of environmental requirements for decarbonization, but also by the need to bring steelmaking technologies in line with the level of modern science. The electronic theory of oxidation/reduction can serve as a scientific basis for new technologies for the reduction of metals. From the standpoint of this theory, the final stage of the electrochemical process of reducing metals with any reducing agent, including hydrogen, is the electrolysis of oxides with the release of metal and gaseous oxygen under the action of an electron flow generated in the fuel cell during the combustion of the reducing agent due to the oxygen of the oxides. Comparison of two technology options ‒ iron reduction by “green” hydrogen or direct electrolysis of ore oxides using electricity from the electrical network shows a multiple advantage of electrolysis in terms of energy costs. It is concluded that the priority in the development strategy of the industry should not be given to the production and use of “green” hydrogen, but to the electrolysis of ore. The use of hydrogen as a reducing agent can be justified in the selective extraction of iron from complex ores in units such as plasma shaft furnaces, plasma reactors or fluidized bed furnace, in which, along with reduction, nitriding would also take place to convert soft iron into steel. In Russia, there is already an opportunity to master the production of steel using “green” or “turquoise” hydrogen. It is most rational to start the introduction of hydrogen reduction of iron on the basis of the deposits of titanomagnetites of the Kola Peninsula using the excess capacity of the Kola NPP to produce hydrogen