D5.3 – Report on results of the aluminium use case implementation

This report presents the main results of the hydrogen-based heating solutions demonstrated and evaluated within Work Package 5 (WP5) of the HyInHeat project, focusing on their application in aluminium production processes. It assesses the technical feasibility of replacing natural gas with hydrogen in industrial furnaces, examining the impact on energy efficiency, process performance, aluminium quality, environmental emissions and operational safety. The report brings together the findings from experimental campaigns, industrial demonstrations and numerical simulations, providing valuable insights into the potential of hydrogen technologies to support the decarbonisation of the aluminium industry.

The analysis covers several applications across the aluminium production value chain, including ladle preheating for liquid metal transfer, rotary recycling furnaces, reverberatory melting furnaces, annealing furnaces and laboratory-scale melting facilities. It also includes design studies for reverberatory holding and pusher furnaces, as well as investigations into the behaviour of refractory materials under hydrogen combustion atmospheres. The results highlight the technical potential of hydrogen and oxyfuel combustion technologies, while identifying important considerations related to fuel consumption, heat transfer, metal quality, NOx emissions, furnace modifications and hydrogen supply infrastructure. The report also demonstrates the importance of appropriate burner design, process control and safety measures to enable the successful integration of hydrogen into existing industrial equipment.

WP5 brings together contributions from several HyInHeat partners, including GHI, Metlen, Befesa, Constellium Technology Center (C-TEC), Toyota Motor Europe, Speira, TECNALIA, Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Linde and RWTH Aachen University.