Facing the challenge of decarbonizing energy-intensive industries, the Hymet project has completed four years of research with the development of a national 5-kilowatt electrolyzer that produces green hydrogen in a “more efficient” way to valorize the waste produced by the steel industry.

Driven by the Spanish multinational Celsa and IREC, along with a dozen companies and technology centers, the project has explored the applications of SOEC technology for the sector. This electrolyzer operates at high temperatures, utilizing residual heat and excess steam generated in industrial facilities to produce renewable hydrogen. “Hymet has validated the usefulness of this technology to valorize mill scale – a by-product rich in iron oxide – with minimal climate impact,” said Anna Casals, innovation manager at Celsa, a group committed to achieving 98% waste valorization by 2030.

The high-temperature electrolyzer reduces water vapor to hydrogen using renewable electricity to obtain green hydrogen, one of the energy vectors that will be the focus of COP29 in Baku (Azerbaijan), which started last Monday and will run until November 22.

The hydrogen is then used to give a second life to the by-product through a reduction reactor, also developed within the Hymet project framework. According to Casals, this has led to “great advances in both reduction technology and electrolysis,” and its use will help “close the loop” of the multinational’s sustainability efforts. For his part, senior researcher at the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), Marc Torrell, stated that SOEC technology is at “a sufficient level of maturity to be scaled up.”

In addition to coordinating the technical aspects of the project, IREC, which collaborates with EFE in the dissemination of this content, along with companies like AMES PM Tech Center, was responsible for developing the components that form the stack, the electrochemical device that is the “central core” of this technology.

According to Unai Puertas, project engineer at Técnicas Reunidas, the prototype for validating SOEC technology “has achieved values of 38 kilowatt-hours per kilogram of hydrogen,” which significantly reduce “those achieved by other technologies, which rarely go below 50 kilowatt-hours.” This efficiency of the prototype, built by Técnicas Reunidas in collaboration with AESA, is, in his opinion, an incentive to continue advancing in later designs “not only to settle for five kilowatts but to be able to integrate the technology into large-scale plants that can be supplied at an industrial level.”

Researchers have agreed that the project, part of the ‘Science and Innovation Missions’ program of the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities through the Center for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), has generated “a consortium” that they hope “will continue” to keep searching for solutions for the decarbonization of any sector.

Consortium Driving the Project

The Hymet project is coordinated by the steel company CELSA and has been driven by a group of companies, including Técnicas Reunidas S.A., AMES PM Tech Center SAU, Ariema Energía y Medioambiente, S.L., and AE S.A., with the participation of important technology centers, such as the Institute for Energy Research of Catalonia (IREC), various centers affiliated with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), including the Institute of Chemical Technology (ITQ), the Institute of Ceramic and Glass (ICV), and the Laboratory of Research in Fluid Dynamics and Combustion Technologies (LIFTEC), as well as the University of Huelva (UHU).

About IREC

The Foundation Institute for Energy Research of Catalonia (IREC) is a public research center affiliated with the Department of Territory, Housing, and Ecological Transition of the Government of Catalonia, which also involves the Department of Research and Universities, as well as the Catalan Institute of Energy (ICAEN). It is recognized as a CERCA center and accredited as a TECNIO center. Established in 2008, its goal is to contribute to the sustainable development of society and increase the competitiveness of the industrial fabric in the energy sector. The center carries out excellent medium- and short-term research, innovation, the development of new technological products, and the dissemination of relevant knowledge to the public.