Feasibility study of low-carbon ammonia and steel production in Europe

As stipulated in the Paris Agreement, greenhouse gas emissions have to be reduced in order to maintain the global warming well below 2°C. Moreover, the European Union committed to become carbon neutral by 2050. This will require shifting industrial production currently based on fossil energies towards the use of renewable energies. The present article considers two conceptual industrial processes that may operate in Europe with low carbon emissions through the use of green hydrogen. The studied processes are projections of the production of ammonia and steel in the 2030s. Hydrogen is assumed to be produced by water electrolysis with Proton Exchange Membrane electrolysers. The purpose of this paper being to evaluate the feasibility of such processes, it is assumed that the electricity required by the processes is entirely provided by renewable energies, in order to focus only on the challenges directly related to the ammonia and steelmaking plants. For the same reason, the prices are estimated in 2030 and not later, to avoid too uncertain costs assumptions, even if a complete supply by renewable energies may be unrealistic at that moment. Based on current industrial sectors of both ammonia and steel productions, a detailed modelling of the two decarbonised processes in Aspen Plus software is carried out and an economic analysis is also presented to prove the feasibility of these processes