Novelis Inc., an aluminum solutions provider and a leader in aluminum rolling and recycling, announced that its Latchford plant in the UK has been awarded £4.6 million to establish hydrogen burning trials as part of the UK Government’s £55m Industrial Fuel Switching Competition, as part of the £1bn Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP), and the wider regional HyNet project.
Novelis joined HyNet in 2017 and has been supporting the development of the regional infrastructure project as well as conducting its own technical feasibility studiesontheuseofhydrogenasadirect replacement for natural gas.
With the recently awarded grant by the
Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, Novelis’ Latchford plant will test the use of hydrogen on one of its recycling furnaces in a demonstration phase in 2024.
The trial has been set up in collaboration with Progressive Energy, an independent UK energy company, and requires the installation of new burners and regenerators – both capable of operating with hydrogen or a blended hydrogen/gas input – and replacing the furnace lining material with one suitable for hydrogen.
Depending on the final configuration, replacing natural gas with hydrogen to feed the remelting furnace could reduce CO2eq emissions by up to 90 percent compared to using the same amount of natural gas.