System and method for reducing ore using hydrogen as a reducing agent

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024336986-A1
Application number	US-202418746313-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 18, 2024
Priority date	Dec 3, 2020
Publication date	Oct 10, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system for reducing ore includes a hydrogen supply unit configured to supply hydrogen, a furnace configured to reduce the ore using the supplied hydrogen, and a hydrogen recovery unit configured to recover hydrogen from an exhaust gas that is exhausted from the furnace.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of reducing ore comprising:
supplying hydrogen; reducing ore in a furnace using the supplied hydrogen; and recovering hydrogen from an exhaust gas that is exhausted from the furnace.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein supplying the hydrogen comprises generating hydrogen in a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the recovering is accomplished by a PEM hydrogen pump.

4 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising separating oxygen from water in a water/oxygen output stream of the PEM electrolyzer.

5 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising supplying the supplied hydrogen, the recovered hydrogen, and the separated oxygen to the furnace.

6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the separating the oxygen from the water comprises:
separating the oxygen from the water in a first vessel; providing the separated oxygen to a second vessel through a venturi; diluting the separated oxygen with air in the second vessel; and providing air from the second vessel to a throat of the venturi.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising heating the supplied hydrogen and the recovered hydrogen with heat from the exhaust gas.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
reacting carbon monoxide with water in the exhaust gas to form hydrogen and carbon dioxide; and oxidizing the remaining carbon monoxide in the exhaust gas to carbon dioxide downstream from the reacting of the carbon monoxide with the water.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising heating the supplied hydrogen and the recovered hydrogen using heat from the exhaust gas.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the heating is accomplished via a heat exchanger.

11 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the hydrogen recovery unit comprises series-parallel coolant flow channels fluidly connecting multiple inlets and outlets.

Assignees

• Ohmium International Inc

Inventors

• Karuppaiah Chockkalingam
• Ballantine Ame
• Venkatraman Muralidhar

Classifications

• C21B7/002

  Evacuating and treating of exhaust gases · CPC title

• C21B2005/005

  Selection or treatment of the reducing gases · CPC title

• B01D2258/025

  from metallurgy plants · CPC title

• B01D53/326

  in electrochemical cells · CPC title

• B01D2256/16

  Hydrogen · CPC title