Novelis receives £4.6m to carry out trial use of hydrogen in its Latchford plant

As part of the UK government's £55m Industrial Fuel Switching Competition, the larger regional HyNet initiative, and the £1bn Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP), Novelis has been granted £4.6 million to carry out hydrogen burning experiments. The trial run will be conducted at Novelis' Latchford facility, which will explore the use of hydrogen on one of its recycling furnaces in a demonstration phase in 2024. The £4.6 million funding was given by the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero.

"We are proud to be one of the pioneers using hydrogen within the aluminium industry and that these trials at Latchford will additionally advance research on the viability of integrating hydrogen power in our recycling operations around the world," Allan Sweeney, Plant Manager, Novelis Latchford.

The trial has been set up in collaboration with Progressive Energy, an independent UK energy company. It requires the installation of new burners and regenerators, both of which can operate with hydrogen or a blended hydrogen/gas input, as well as replacing the furnace lining material with one that can handle hydrogen. Novelis joined HyNet in 2017 and has helped build the regional infrastructure project while undertaking its own technical feasibility studies on using hydrogen as a direct substitute for natural gas.

"Switching to renewable energy sources is a key initiative to advance on our journey toward carbon-neutral production. Besides decarbonizing our own facility, this collaboration drives the industrial decarbonization of the whole North-West region in UK," said Emilio Braghi, Executive Vice President Novelis and President of Novelis Europe.

Depending on the final arrangement, substituting hydrogen for natural gas to fuel the remelting furnace might cut CO2eq emissions by up to 90 per cent compared to utilising the same quantity of natural gas. In addition to its contribution to HyNet, Novelis' research and development teams throughout the globe are studying the possibility of powering its manufacturing processes using plasma, electricity, and biomass.

Suzanne Lindsay-Walker, Vice President, Sustainability, Novelis Inc said, “Decarbonizing our melting processes is a critical lever to achieving our sustainability goals of reducing our carbon footprint by 30% by 2026 and being carbon neutral by 2050 or sooner.”