Novelis tests hydrogen in recycling furnace at aluminium facility

Novelis has successfully tested using hydrogen fuel to power a recycling furnace at its UK plant in Latchford, Warrington.

The tests were carried out as part of a UK government decarbonisation programme and required the installation of new burners, regenerators and furnace lining material.

Using hydrogen instead of the same amount of natural gas when operating a melting furnace can reduce CO2e emissions by up to 90%.

Several series of tests were conducted by blending different percentages of hydrogen with natural gas (30%-100%) to evaluate the impact on existing infrastructure and equipment compatibility.

During the trial campaign, several hundred tonnes of 3000 series scrap aluminium alloy were remelted and cast into sheet ingots.

In addition, all relevant parameters were measured to assess any impact on the product, process, operating environment, and environmental emissions.

Further downstream processing, including rolling and finishing, will be now completed at other Novelis plants in Europe to establish the real ‘end-to-end’ parameters of a hydrogen-based, recycled alloy production process.

Following the full post-trial evaluation and assessments, a report will be released as part of the UK government’s Industrial Fuel Switching programme later this year.

Allan Sweeney, Plant Manager, Novelis Latchford, said: “The results from Latchford will drive further research into the potential deployment of hydrogen in our recycling operations worldwide.”

The tests were carried out in collaboration with independent UK company Progressive Energy.