Successful Testing of a Hydrogen-Powered Melting Furnace
In May 2025, the aluminum recycling and rolling group Speira informed about an advancement in its sustainability journey: As part of the EU-funded HyInHeat project, it has successfully converted a melting furnace with a capacity of 1.5 tons to hydrogen operation. Initial tests with various scrap types show promising results with no impact on melt quality, the information said.
Tests of the retrofitted 1.5-ton capacity furnace using various types of aluminum scrap demonstrated that the quality of the melted metal remains consistently high: “Our early trials have been very encouraging,” Galyna Laptyeva, Senior Scientist and Project Lead at Speira was quoted. “We’ve proven that hydrogen is fundamentally suitable as a fuel for our melting furnaces. This is a major step towards reducing the carbon intensity of our production.”
To further increase efficiency, Speira has equipped the test furnace with even more advanced technology. Instead of using normal air, hydrogen is now burned with pure oxygen – a process known as “oxyfuel.” According to Galyna Laptyeva, Oxygen is a by-product of hydrogen production. “By using it for combustion, our calculations show we can save approximately 30 percent of fuel. This makes the process not only more environmentally friendly but also more economical.”
Another advantage of hydrogen combustion is that, ideally, no harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx) are produced, Speira pointed out. “In practice, however, small leaks and impurities can cause minimal amounts of these pollutants. Researchers will closely examine how to reduce these emissions to a minimum in upcoming tests.”
About HyInHeat
Launched in 2023, the HyInHeat project brings together 30 partners from 12 European countries to explore hydrogen’s potential for decarbonizing heat-intensive processes in the aluminum and steel industries. Together, they bring expertise in various fields related to industrial heating, including combustion, furnaces, sensors, safety, and sustainability. The initiative aims to develop efficient hydrogen combustion systems that address nearly the entire process chain of these energy-intensive industries. The project will run until the end of 2026 and is being coordinated by the Department for Industrial Furnaces and Heat Engineering (IOB) at RWTH Aachen University.
speira.com, hyinheat.eu, iob.rwth-aachen.de/en/department/
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 2/2025, Page 38, Photo: Speira)
