Completion of the HYMET project, with Técnicas Reunidas as a project partner, to develop a 5kW electrolyser for the iron and steel industry.
In response to the challenge of decarbonising energy-intensive industries, the HYMET project has completed four years of research with the development of a 5 kW electrolyser that produces green hydrogen at high temperature, based on the use of waste heat and excess steam generated in industrial facilities.
HYMET has successfully demonstrated the usefulness of SOEC technology to valorise iron oxide-rich by-product scale, with minimal climate impact. The high-temperature electrolyser reduces water vapour to hydrogen using renewable electricity to produce green hydrogen, which is subsequently used to give the by-product a second life through a reduction reactor.
According to Unai Puertas, project engineer at Técnicas Reunidas, the prototype for validation of the SOEC technology "has achieved values of 38 kWh for each kilogram of hydrogen", ‘substantially’ lower than the values recorded by other technologies "that rarely fall below 50 kWh". The next step is to advance further in subsequent designs of the prototype, built by Técnicas Reunidas in collaboration with AESA, to integrate the technology into large-scale plants that can be supplied at industrial level.
The HYMET project, funded under the CDTI Science and Innovation Missions programme, is coordinated by CELSA in collaboration, as project partners, with Técnicas Reunidas, AMES PM Tech Center, Ariema Energía y Medioambiente, AESA, IREC, CSIC, ITQ, ICV, LIFTEC and the UHU.
Source: Energética21
