Abstract:

The increased emphasis on climate change coupled with the 2050 emission reduction targets that most countries have committed to, means that operators of high temperature thermo-processing equipment are looking for solutions to substantially reduce their CO₂ emissions. One potential method is the use renewable green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is and will remain an expensive fuel in the foreseeable future, so it makes sense to optimize its use in industrial process. One obvious route is the use of hydrogen fired oxyfuel combustion systems for high temperature industrial process that, for technical reasons, cannot be converted to direct electrical heating.

Linde has been investigating the use of hydrogen fired oxyfuel burner systems at their combustion technology centres in Stockholm (Sweden), Tonawanda (New York State, USA) and Unterschleissheim (close to Munich, Germany) since 2018, with the goal of ensuring that all Linde oxyfuel burners are Hydrogen Ready. Linde has been implementing oxyfuel solutions across a broad range of industries for more than 40 years.

In this paper Linde will present data and findings of the comparative tests performed with several commercially available Linde burners as well as results from full hydrogen combustion scale trials in a steel reheating furnace, aluminium remelter and a glass melter. The data presented will be for hydrogen, natural gas as well as selected blends of hydrogen in natural gas. Parameters like flame length and shape as well as NOx emissions and heat distribution within the test furnaces will be presented and compared for conventional as well as flameless oxyfuel burners. Heat transfer into aluminium and copper samples as well as measured peak flame temperatures will be presented, as well as real world data from an industrial scale REBOX® flameless oxyfuel burner installation operating with renewable hydrogen.

Hydrogen safety, production, supply, storage, a few challenges as well as hydrogen’s use as a reductant in the copper industry will also be discussed briefly.

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Dr. William Mahoney