PFI-RP: Converting waste gas into clean hydrogen for sustainable steel production

这项创新-研究伙伴关系（PFI-RP）项目的更广泛的影响和商业潜力是有效地生产无碳氢气，同时减少美国钢铁工业的温室气体排放。钢铁制造业产生大量的富燃料气体，这些气体目前被浪费掉了。将拟议的技术应用于钢铁制造业，可以以高能效利用这种浪费的资源，有可能消除全球每年超过5亿吨的二氧化碳排放。此外，该技术将提高绿色钢铁生产的经济吸引力。例如，我们确定的一个工厂每年可以生产价值2600万美元的氢气。此外，所提出的技术适用于利用各种工业废气、沼气和/或垃圾填埋气原料，二氧化碳净排放量为零甚至为负。拟议项目的成功完成将为美国钢铁生产带来巨大的经济效益，同时推动美国工业走向无碳的未来。除了它的技术影响，拟议的项目提供了一个特殊的机会，教育新一代工程师的学术研究技能和领导能力，创新和创业过程强化和可持续能源技术。拟议中的项目将解决最先进的铁生产过程中产生的“废气”的低效利用问题。这些气体通常含有大量的燃料，如甲烷、一氧化碳和用二氧化碳稀释的氢。虽然现有的传统技术可以将这些气体转化为氢燃料和二氧化碳，但它们既复杂又低效，特别是考虑到废气的混合性质。我们开发了一种新技术，通过两个相互关联的步骤，有效地将废气转化为可隔离的二氧化碳和氢气。我们的初步结果支持该技术的可行性和吸引力。拟议的项目旨在专门解决剩余的技术差距，包括进一步优化氧化还原催化剂，大规模催化剂生产，数据驱动的反应器操作改进，用工厂的真实废气流演示该过程，以及详细的经济和环境分析。这将通过在钢铁生产现场部署一个小型试点装置来实现，以证明从废气中生产氢气的可行性。该项目将为项目完成后的商业化铺平道路。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation – Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) project is the efficient production of carbon free hydrogen along with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. iron and steel industry. Iron and steel manufacturing produces large amounts of fuel-rich gases that are currently wasted. Applying the proposed technology to iron and steel manufacturing can use this wasted resource with high energy efficiency, with the potential to eliminate more than 500 million tons/year of CO2 emissions worldwide. Furthermore, the technology will improve the economic attractiveness for greener iron and steel production. For instance, it can produce $26 million/year worth of H2 in a single plant we identified. Moreover, the proposed technology is applicable to utilize a variety of industrial waste gases, biogas, and/or landfill gas feedstocks with zero or even negative net CO2 emissions. Successful completion of the proposed project will lead to significant economic benefits for U.S. iron/steel production while advancing U.S. industry towards a carbon-free future. In addition to its technological impacts, the proposed project offers an exceptional opportunity to educate a new generation of engineers in academic research skills and leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship in process intensification and sustainable energy technologies.The proposed project will address the inefficient use of “waste” gases that come from state-of-the-art iron production processes. These gases often contain significant amounts of fuels such as methane, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen diluted with carbon dioxide. While conventional technologies exist to convert these gases into hydrogen fuel and carbon dioxide, they are complex and inefficient, particularly given the mixed nature of the waste gas. We have developed a new technology that efficiently converts the waste gas into separate streams of sequestrable carbon dioxide and hydrogen, in two interconnected steps. Our preliminary results support the viability and attractiveness of the proposed technology. The proposed project is designed to specifically address the remaining technological gaps including further optimization of the redox catalysts, large-scale catalyst production, data-driven improvement of reactor operation, demonstration of the process with a real waste gas stream from the plant, and detailed economic and environmental analyses. This will be achieved through the deployment of a small pilot unit at an iron/steel production site, demonstrating the viability of producing hydrogen from the waste gas. The project will pave the way for commercialization after the project.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.