On Tuesday
25 June, residents of an existent apartment block in Rozenburg (NL) were the
first in the Netherlands to receive heat from boilers that run on pure
hydrogen. This pilot project is the result of a consortium containing 7 key
players from the heating industry, each with its own expertise; Bekaert
Heating, Remeha, DNV GL, Municipality of Rotterdam, Housing association Ressort
Wonen and system operator Stedin. Bekaert contributes to this project by
supplying key technology for hydrogen combustion in a boiler system.
In October last year, Bekaert already announced
to have realized a hydrogen burner suitable for domestic heating. This
groundbreaking technology is one of the essentials going forward in the energy
transition from natural gas to hydrogen and responds to the trend towards
CO2-free heating systems.
To secure
the hydrogen supply a dedicated power station has been installed nearby. It
contains multiple electrolyzers for the transition of electricity into
hydrogen, followed by a pipe network for the supply of hydrogen from the power
station to the boiler room in the basement of the apartment block.
“The first
field test results of the Bekaert hydrogen burner look promising, ”says Dirk
ten Hoeve, Global R&D manager Combustion Technology at Bekaert. "Our
pre-mix hydrogen burner also works well under practical conditions and the
performance in terms of comfort and safety is quite similar to a conventional
natural gas burner and more importantly, this burner does not emit any CO2 at
all". The hydrogen burner will be further tested in Rozenburg in the
coming months.
