Study on Water Splitting Potential of Some Metallurgical Wastes for Production of Hydrogen

Abstract

Development of reliable and cost-effective technologies to produce hydrogen is very important in the context of climate change mitigation. Even partial substitution of carbonaceous fuels and reductants in ironmaking may reduce CO2 emissions considerably. Hydrogen-based ironmaking technologies are being developed; however, their commercialization is constrained by availability and cost of hydrogen. Approaches such as solar hydrogen, fuel cells, and bio-hydrogen are being extensively studied worldwide; however, for the most part, these developments have uncertain potential to produce hydrogen for industrial applications in ironmaking owing to their complexity, insufficient productivity, and high cost. The potential of some widely available materials and wastes to be used as contact mass in the thermo-chemical water splitting processes for on-site production of hydrogen at a steel factory towards future hydrogen-based ironmaking is studied in the current paper by using thermodynamic modeling.