Short abstract

H2STEEL intends to create a ground-breaking competitive solution for sustainable green hydrogen and bio coal production from circular biowaste streams. The project aims to contribute to the EU Green Hydrogen economy and to the decarbonization of the European steel sector through a disruptive hydrogen production mode via biomethane catalytic cracking through a biochar based catalyst and reactor. The catalyst will enable the recovery of critical raw materials from waste while enabling its use as bio coal in steel production  in a truly circular approach promoting industrial symbiosis

Project description

H2 steel project integrates the existing biowaste anaerobic digestion facilities in a novel integrated value chain based on the valorization of biochar and digestate into Green H2 and high value products. The proposed continuous biomethane catalytic process using the biochar based catalyst derived from digested biowaste will produce green hydrogen and solid carbon that will later get sequestered in steel. The innovative technology will be integrated in a sustainable value chain while connecting biowaste sector and steelmaking industry. The upgraded biochar as a catalyst in the biomethane pyrolysis process can be identified as the main ground breaking aspect of the project.

As a part of the project, the researchers at CML will collaborate to quantify the Life Cycle Inventories for a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study, comparing the H2 steel system to alternative incumbents. The calculations will define the relevant scenarios of performance at scale, including a characterization of uncertainty in the input data, relationships between modelling parameters etc. A LCA of the baseline system (current system of the material flows) and the proposed technological system will be conducted using the open source LCA software and necessary open software applications will be developed as needed.

Additionally, using the data gathered in the previous tasks, a hybrid LCA will be performed using Environmentally Extended Input Output (EEIO) data such as the EXIOBASE database so as to assess the macro-economic environmental contribution of H2 steel to the decarbonization objectives. In this context, hybrid LCA consists in the employment of the EEIO data as background data for the execution of LCA allowing the assessment of social, environmental and economic aspects of a given technology. Similarly, to address the social dimensions of sustainability in the analysis, Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) will be conducted. SLCA will also assist in identifying the policy aspects that will act as regulatory barriers in implementing the H2 steel supply chain.

The above analyses will develop a set of  qualitative and quantitative indicators that will assist in placing the H2 steel project in the context relevant to decarbonization and SDGs. The information derived will be disseminated to interested stakeholders such as EU commission and related multipliers, government institutions and policy makers, scientific community, end users, associations and platforms and general public creating awareness on the potential of H2 steel project implementation.

• ex-ante lca
• input-output analysis