Research Projects
Sustainable Synthesis of Materials Group

In this EU Horizon project, we at MPIE, will focus on the sustainable pre-reduction of manganese ores with hydrogen, especially the kinetic analysis of the reduction process using thermogravimetry analysis and an in-depth understand the role of microstructure and local chemistry in the reduction process.
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Replacing carbon by hydrogen as the reducing agent in ironmaking offers a pathway to massively reduce the associated CO₂ emissions. However, the production of hydrogen using renewable energy will remain as one of the bottlenecks at least in the next two decades. The underlying reasons are the low electrolysis productivity and the insufficient capacities in both renewable electricity and industrial infrastructures to produce sufficient amounts of green hydrogen, especially in view of the gigantic demand for currently 1.8 billion tons of steel being produced every year, with forecasts predicting 2.4 billion tons by the year 2040. We therefore demonstrate how the efficiency in hydrogen and energy consumption during iron ore reduction can be dramatically improved by the knowledge-based combination of two technologies: partially reducing the ore at low temperature via solid-state hydrogen-based direct reduction (HyDR) to a kinetically defined degree, and subsequently melting and completely transforming it to iron under a reducing plasma (i.e. via hydrogen plasma reduction, HPR) more

Iron- and steelmaking is the most staggering single source of CO₂ emissions on the planet, accounting for ~7% of the global emissions. This fact challenges the current technologies to achieve carbon-lean steel production and reduce CO₂ emissions by 80% until 2050. Among the sustainable alternatives for ironmaking, the hydrogen plasma reduction (HPR) is a promising route, as the associated by-product is water. In this process, a hydrogen plasma arc is ignited between an electrode and the ore in a conventional electrical arc furnace (EAF), Figure 1 (a). Thus, melting and reduction occur simultaneously, enabling the production of liquid iron in single step. The highly energetic hydrogen species existing in a reducing plasma also enable exothermic redox chemical reactions with enhanced kinetics, permitting energy savings.
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To successfully transition from fossil fuels to a sustainable carbon-free energy supply, a safe and stable energy storage technology is required. Recently, metallic powders, and particularly iron powder, have been proposed as a high energy density, easily storable, and commonly traded fuel. Energy production is obtained through the heat of oxidation, and the combusted products can then be reduced at the solid-state using hydrogen coming from sustainable energy sources, resulting in a complete CO₂-free energy cycle. While the combustion of iron powders seems very promising in this regard, hardly anything is known about its in-process morphological, microstructural, and chemical evolution, which are critical for the circularity of the concept and the subsequent reduction process.
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The HYDRI project aims at disentangling the correlation between material micro-/nanostructures and the hydrogen-based direct reduction (HyDR) kinetics, to reveal the vital role of acquired defects in HyDR processes. A multiscale and time-resolved operando approach will be used to characterize micro-/nanostructures in HyDR. Gaining better insights into these effects enable improved access to the microstructure-based design of more efficient HyDR methods, with potentially high impact on the urgently needed decarbonization in the steel industry. more

Direct reduction of iron ores with hydrogen is an attractive alternative to the common reduction with carbon, to eliminate the CO₂ emissions in steel making. The kinetics of this process are not yet well understood, in particular during the wüstite reduction step. Microstructure, local chemistry and lattice defects are studied for better understanding the underlaying microscopic transport and reduction mechanisms and kinetics, aiming to open the perspective for a carbon-neutral iron production. more

Hydrogen-based reduction (HyDR) of iron ores is a major step toward sustainable ironmaking, to mitigate the gigantic CO₂ emissions in the current iron and steel industry (~8% of the global CO₂ emissions). HyDR is a multistep solid-state reaction, where iron ores (hematite or magnetite) are gradually reduced to iron at high temperatures of 500-1100 °C. H₂ reduces the iron oxides by removing the chemically bound oxygen in iron oxides to produce metallic iron (Fe). During HyDR, pores form due to the removal of oxygen and the formation of cracks. The formation of pores and their connectivity are critical for the overall reduction kinetics since they provide fresh surfaces for chemical reactions and transport pathways for gaseous reductant (H₂) and product (H₂O). more