LIFE SUGAR PROJECT

STEAM REFORMING is a consolidated process for hydrogen and syngas production in many industrial sectors (refining, petrochemical, fertilizers, etc.). The novelty of this application in glass production is that the heat for the Steam-Methane Reforming (SMR) reaction will not be generated on purpose by direct fuel combustion, but will be recovered from waste gases that otherwise would be lost into the atmosphere. The LIFE SUGAR project will operate interventions in glass industry capable of reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions by recovering the residual heat from exhaust flue gases from the combustion of fossil fuels to produce thermal energy, by means of an additional thermal and chemical vector (in addition to the combustion air) represented by the hydrogen-rich syngas produced by an endothermic SMR reaction. Thus, it will explore the use of hydrogen-based combustion in the glass sector to pave the way to carbon-free industry. The LIFE SUGAR system uses the heat recovery architecture of SG Centauro system, (the only known system coupling SNCR technology and regenerative performance), which is divided in a high temperature regenerative and a low temperature recuperative part. This architecture allows to derive a stream of waste gas between the two heat recovery sub-systems at a temperature suitable for providing heat for reforming reaction. This way, a part of the NG to be used as fuel in the furnace is ‘reformed’ with steam to obtain a H2/CO rich syngas, with a higher energy content. This solution allows to re-use high quantities of thermal energy in the combustion chamber, guaranteeing the melting system an efficiency closer to the theoretical thermodynamic limits.