In a statement, Paul Wurth said the dry reforming pilot plant, which is being built at Dillinger and Saarstahl’s ROGESA Roheisengesellschaft Saar plant, will allow for small-scale testing of the process with industrial gases.

As Paul Wurth explains: “The dry reforming process allows the conversion of coke oven gas, or syngas, that is injected in the blast furnace at tuyere or shaft level. The mixture of coke oven gas and blast furnace gas is compressed and heated up in a regenerative heat exchanger. At high temperature, the methane contained in the coke oven gas will react with the CO₂ contained in the blast furnace gas to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

“The injection of this hot reducing gas into the blast furnace entails a significant reduction in coke consumption. Such use of steelmaking gases for metallurgical purposes rather than for thermal purposes translates into a significant reduction in CO₂ emissions of up to 12%. The use of hydrogen can further improve and almost double the CO₂ saving potential.”