It’s challenging for renewables to replace high heat for furnaces or boilers. The energy demand for heat-intensive industries is often too high for renewables to match. However, to meet climate goals of carbon neutrality, fossil fuels have to go. Heavy industry and power plants combined account for 40% of global carbon emissions.
That’s why Royal Swinkels Family Brewers in the Netherlands is collaborating with technology think tank Metal Power and team SOLID from the Eindhoven University of Technology on the world’s first industrial installation of using renewable iron as fuel. The Dutch brewery has replaced fossil fuels in its furnace with iron powder to prove that heating can be accomplished through sustainable iron combustion.
Peer Swinkels, Royal Swinkels Family Brewers’s CEO, said:
We are enormously proud to be the first company to test this new fuel on an industrial scale to help accelerate the energy transition. As a family business, we invest in a sustainable and circular economy because we think in terms of generations, not years. We combine this way of thinking with high-quality knowledge in the collaboration with the Metal Power Consortium. Through this innovative technology, we want to make our brewing process less dependent on fossil fuels. We will continue to invest in this innovation.
Not only is the method CO2-free, safe, and easily transportable, but it’s also circular because burnt iron can be reused again and again. Cheap iron powder ground very fine burns promptly at high temperatures, releasing energy as it oxidizes. What’s leftover is rust (iron oxide), which can be easily collected and turned back into iron powder. It can be “recharged” using electrolysis powered by clean energy sources. The iron acts as a sort of battery, discharging in heat and charging via electricity.
Philip de Goey, a TU Eindhoven Professor of Combustion Technology, said:
The beauty of iron fuel is that you can release he energy stored in iron fuel when and where you need it. If you grind iron into a powder, it becomes highly flammable, and this combustion releases a lot of energy in the form of heat. This heat can meet the industry’s energy demand. Moreover, iron fuel is reusable and easy to transport.
No CO2 is produced during combustion, and only rust remains. It’s a circular process: you capture this rust powder and sustainably convert it back into iron powder. Furthermore, iron fuel is safe and loses virtually no energy during storage. For these reasons, iron fuel is easy to store for longer periods and to transport over greater distances – one of the biggest challenges in the energy transition.
The Dutch government introduced an ambitious timeline to phase out the use of natural gas by 2022. Ideas like this iron fuel technology are perfect for industries that require high heat or lots of electricity to meet demand.
