Development of heating technologies for the Efficient renewable Energy COnsumption of CO2-neutral DOWNSTREAM-processes

The aim of E-ECO Downstream is to enable a clean steel production by developing advanced and breakthrough technologies for the steel making downstream processes.

This will decisively support the EU in achieving its goal towards climate neutrality by 2050.E-ECO Downstream focuses on the efficient utilization of hydrogen, biogas, and electricity to substitute carbon-based fuels and drastically lower the carbon footprint of the steel production. Energy efficiency is pursued to enable sustainable utilization of volatile green energy.

Currently installed burners of reheating furnaces will be enabled to utilize green H2 by integration of newly designed and 3D-printed burner components instead of replacing entire burner systems.

To increase fuel flexibility hybrid heating concepts (H2 and electricity) will be investigated in a pilot walking beam furnace.

Since the mentioned solutions will change the waste heat streams and their heat recovery in future downstream processes must be reevaluated.

This will be done by analysing the partners processes and plants, development and testing of waste heat recovery concepts and recuperators regarding their suitability to new fuels and their off gases, while considering their impact on materials/product.

Energy efficiency potentials of downstream processes will be evaluated by case studies for the application of hot charge from casting to hot rolling by covering of the slabs with passive and active panels.The elaborated solutions will be assessed by techno-eco-environmental analysis to evaluate their applicability and to increase their acceptance in the steel community.The E-ECO Downstream consortium has a deep and shared knowledge of iron and steel making, downstream processes and heating technology, materials engineering, numerical simulation, experimental investigations, economy, and life cycle analysis.