Utility announces hydrogen production using steel manufacturing off-gases

Utility’s H2Gen system has produced hydrogen using steel plant off-gas (blast furnace gas) in a single process step under actual site conditions. This marks the implementation of a system that can produce clean hydrogen from water without the need for electricity. The H2Gen system provides a solution to the steel industry’s clean energy challenges, as it can produce economic, clean hydrogen. It is a solution that is commercially available, offers a profitable pathway to a clean energy transition, and integrates with existing assets.

Steel production is vital to industrial progress, but it is also one of the world’s most energy-intensive processes, facing significant energy transition hurdles in reducing its carbon footprint. These challenges include:

• Capital costs in the billions of dollars for alternative steelmaking technologies compared to the blast furnaces used in making most of the steel globally.
• Limited space and infrastructure constraints for making economic on-site clean hydrogen that can reduce carbon footprint of existing steel plants.
• The need to balance sustainability with productivity and global competitiveness, while lacking economic carbon capture solutions for the steel industry.

Utility’s H2Gen system offers a solution to these challenges by producing hydrogen from water using industrial off-gases, such as blast furnace gas. The H2Gen system enables on-site hydrogen production with a compact footprint while delivering enriched CO2 at a single point for cost-effective carbon capture. With more than 3000 hrs of operation at a major steel plant, H2Gen has demonstrated its ability to drive a cost-effective, scalable, reliable, and commercially ready energy transition pathway for heavy industries, including steel, biogas-to-hydrogen, chemicals, refining, upstream oil and gas, power, and hydrogen-powered data centres.

Project results

• Hydrogen production: the H2Gen system consistently produced hydrogen on-site without the need for electrical input to the reaction.
• Seamless integration: designed for compatibility and operational simplicity, the modular, factory-built H2Gen system integrates with existing steel plant processes with minimal pre- and post-gas treatment, enhancing operational efficiency.
• Robust performance: the system demonstrated significant flexibility, handling a wide variety of feed gas conditions and could restart in less than 15 min. after feed gas outage events.
• Cost-effective and scalable solution: by minimising operating and capital costs with a very small onsite footprint and modular scalability, H2Gen provides a practical, economic pathway to clean hydrogen production for decarbonising steel manufacturing, among many other hard-to-abate industry sectors.

“Decarbonising heavy industries like steel, mobility, chemicals, refining, and power has been one of the toughest challenges in the energy transition – until now. Our deployment of H2Gen at a major steel plant proves we can deliver scalable, economic, clean hydrogen solutions that integrate with existing infrastructure and assets,” stated Parker Meeks, CEO of Utility. “Utility is rapidly scaling to meet global demand, with strong momentum in steel, biogas-to-hydrogen for mobility, and beyond. Our H2Gen systems provide an economic, modular solution without the high costs and infrastructure barriers of alternative hydrogen technologies. With strong customer and partner momentum, we are accelerating the shift to clean hydrogen at scale.”

Read the article online at: https://www.globalhydrogenreview.com/hydrogen/11032025/utility-announces-hydrogen-production-using-steel-manufacturing-off-gases/