TWINGHY: advancing the use of hydrogen burners for greener performance
Fives, an international engineering group, partners with leading European companies and research institutions to collaborate on the development and testing of hybrid burners with hydrogen content in industrial reheating furnaces. The TWINGHY project was launched in the CELSA Barcelona plant in Spain and aims to demonstrate an optimized heat transfer process based on hybrid burners in reheating furnaces. It will allow progressively decarbonize the reheating process through an increase of hydrogen in combination with oxygen by monitoring and controlling it through a digital twin.
With the ultimate goal of reducing emissions and increasing energy efficiency within the steel industry, this project involves testing and optimizing hybrid burners in real-world settings, developing new control systems and monitoring techniques to ensure a safe, efficient operation.
Testing will take place on the existing Stein Digit@l Furnace®, installed by Fives at CELSA Barcelona plant in 2009. This is a walking beam furnace of 180 tons per hour capacity designated for the production of different merchant bars in the construction industry.
Two types of hybrid burners (natural gas-hydrogen) will be developed and tested: one based on air-combustion and the other on oxy-combustion. Fives will be providing its thermal reheating expertise to test the hybrid burners by using hydrogen as a partial replacement for natural gas.
To support hydrogen transition, a digital twin methodology will be developed by partners and applied to the demonstrator as well as the replication site. The digital twin will analyse the impact of different fuel blends, energy efficiency, reliability and safety.
In addition, new challenges related to hydrogen usage, such as security of supply, optimal fuel blends and quantities, CAPEX, OPEX, impact on process, required infrastructure and safety regulations, will be also addressed during the anticipated 54-month project life.
The TWINGHY project will bring together combustion system optimization and furnace digitalization, ultimately avoiding the need to replace an entire furnace with a long lifespan ahead and accelerating the decarbonization of the steel industry.
Project duration: 01.02.2023 - 31.07.2027
Project funder: Research Fund for Coal and Steel
Funding amount: €4 287 660
Project coordinator: CELSA
Project partners: CELSA, Barna Steel, Fives, Nippon Gases, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, RWTH Aachen University, University of Oulu, Calderys, Swerim Ab and SSAB EMEA