The meeting of the Use in Industry Vertical of the BH2C highlights the potential of hydrogen for decarbonising the cement and steel industries.
The 6th meeting of the Use in Industry Vertical of the BH2C was held on Thursday, 9 October, at the EIC - Energy Intelligence Centre. The meeting of the Vertical, led by Sarralle and Sener, brought together 42 people from 25 member organisations.
To begin the meeting, Nora Castañeda, from Sener, and Itsaso Auzmendi, from Sarralle, ran through the latest developments in the projects and initiatives being taken forward in the Vertical, as well as the most relevant regulatory aspects affecting the renewable hydrogen industry in recent months.
Following this, Johannes Galb, from K1-MET, explained the objectives and next steps to be taken in the Hy4Smelt project, which aims to demonstrate the feasibility of hydrogen-based direct reduction and smelting of iron ore to obtain environmentally friendly hot metal. The HYFOR industrial-scale demonstrator, located in Austria, is expected to start operating in 2027 to analyse the performance of the equipment developed as part of this initiative. Jesús Mari Ubillos and Carlota Pueyo, both from Sener, then spoke about the roadmap for decarbonising the cement industry. This strategy focuses on reducing emissions in the clinker production process, where hydrogen can be used as a fuel or as feedstock for the production of e-fuels.
After the coffee break, Itsaso Auzmendi spoke about the results of the H-Acero1 project and the objectives of H-Acero2, both led by Sarralle, for the decarbonisation of steel manufacturing. The consortium will conduct trials on the use of hydrogen in electric arc furnaces, ladle and trough preheaters, reheating furnaces and oxy-fuel cutting. Finally, Tamara Rodriguez, from Sidenor, explained the company's decarbonisation objectives and its participation in the European IS2H4C project, where experimental tests have been conducted on oxy-combustion processes in ladle heating, with a view to testing the viability of using hydrogen to replace natural gas.
