The Befesa LIFE HYDROGAS project, studying innovative solutions to produce hydrogen from waste gases.

Befesa is researching innovative waste gas recovery solutions through its EU LIFE HYDROGAS project. The aim of the project is to stabilise and clean the waste gas stream (hydrogen gas) produced during the aluminium salt slag recycling process, transforming it into high-purity hydrogen and methane streams that can be used as alternative fuels to natural gas in steam boilers.

This solution involves the use of a new membrane technology to purify and separate the flows of hydrogen and methane. Given the complexity of the stream to be treated and burned, a gas cleaning stage will need to be included to remove certain compounds (such as siloxanes, H2S and VOCs) at the head of the separation process. To this end, various purification techniques available on the market will be integrated, enabling gas impurities to be reduced to acceptable levels for subsequent separation and use. In addition, the project seeks to recover the ammonia present in the gas flow for subsequent resale on the market. Any physical fluctuations in the hydrogen gas flow will be stabilised using damping technologies to ensure a constant gas flow and enable efficient operations.

The success of the LIFE HYDROGAS project to set up and operate a plant to treat and recover waste gas flows for energy purposes will reduce energy consumption by 17.9 GWh/year and cut CO2eq emissions by 3,619 tonnes/year.

Source: Befesa