Fives and Hydro partnership leads to industrial-scale, green hydrogen world first
June 21, 2023The two global industry leaders are tackling carbon emissions in the aluminum sector.
Fives, an industrial engineering group, and Hydro Havrand, a green hydrogen solutions provider, have come together to produce a test batch of recycled aluminum using hydrogen in place of natural gas.
This success marks a significant step toward carbon emissions-free aluminum production.
The test was carried out at the Hydro Extrusion plant in Navarra, Spain, where the natural gas was replaced with green H2 in the recycling of aluminum. It is the world’s first ever successful hydrogen test in aluminum production, on an industrial scale.
As aluminum is a heavy pollution industry, being able to successfully use green hydrogen, one of the most promising emission-free fuels, for production in place of natural gas, is a huge step toward decarbonizing the industry.
Once the technology is matured, hydrogen can also be used to replace other high-heat processes currently dependent on fossil fuels, such as in cement or glass.
Fives and Hydro will create the world’s first green hydrogen fueled aluminum billets for extruded products.
In another world first, the aluminum produced in the test will reportedly be used in mass-production of recycled aluminum from Hydro Extrusion Navarra, to create hydrogen fueled aluminum billets for extruded products like window frames and car parts.
To conduct the test, Fives made upgrades to the existing high efficiency North American TwinBedTM II combustion system (Fives’ own manufactured regenerative low-NOx burner). The company also designed and supplied the green hydrogen and natural gas mixing station as well as all the necessary controls to operate the system effectively and safely.
Additionally, Fives provided the computation fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis and the data acquisition solution to monitor the combustion system’s performance. The company also ran further testing in its newly hydrogen equipped laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio.
Over a hundred years of expertise in aluminum melting.
“We are excited to work with Hydro on this common ambition to produce carbon-free aluminum through more than 100 years of expertise in industrial combustion and a large range of state-or-the art burners, combustion systems and digital tools,” said Stephan Paech, CEO at Fives North American Combustion Inc., in a recent news release from Fives announcing the successful test.
“This test is part of developing commercial fuel switch solutions and to demonstrate that hydrogen can be used in aluminium production,” added Per Christian Eriksen, Head of Hydro Havrand – Hydro’s green hydrogen production company. “Green hydrogen can remove hard to abate emissions from fossile fuels, in processes where electricity is not an alternative, both in the aluminium industry and in other heavy industries.”
A final report from the test is expected to be ready this fall.
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