A techno-economic evaluation of the use of hydrogen in a steel production process, utilizing nuclear process heat

Due to the growing environmental concern about global warming, there is immense pressure on the metallurgical industry to lower their carbon dioxide emissions. This article evaluates the use of hydrogen, produced by a Hybrid Sulphur process which utilizes nuclear process heat, as a reducing agent in the steel industry. Two commercial steelmaking processes and an alternative one were investigated to resolve what influence nuclear hydrogen would have on the carbon dioxide emissions and the production cost of these processes. Overall it was found the steel industry could benefit a great deal from utilizing nuclear hydrogen.