Chenn Zhou, Center for Innovation through Visualization and Simulation (CIVS) founding director and NIPSCO Distinguished Professor of Engineering Simulation at PNW, recently sat down for a Q&A interview with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy.

In this interview, Zhou shares what excites her most about the integrated virtual blast furnace and why she’s not concerned about artificial intelligence (AI) replacing people on the path to industrial decarbonization.

Read Chenn Zhou’s Interview

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Recent CIVS News

Federal officials tout recent multimillion dollar research grants for CIVS during tour
Purdue University Northwest to play significant role in $1 billion Midwest Hydrogen Hub
Purdue University Northwest and industrial partners celebrate $10 million federal grant for steel decarbonization research

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On July 15, CIVS Associate Director for Operations Armin Silaen presented “Simulating Hydrogen Fuel Usage in a Steel Reheating Furnace” at the ASME 2024 Summer Heat Transfer Conference in Anaheim, CA. Co-authors of the paper include CIVS Senior Research Engineer Nicholas Walla, Graduate students Misbahuddin Syed and Abhishek Kolakotla, and CIVS Director Chenn Zhou.

The traditional reheating furnace is not only a key part of the steelmaking process, it is also a process that creates large amounts of CO2 emissions from natural gas combustion.  The use of hydrogen gas as an alternative fuel to augment or replace the use of natural gas has become a major focus in the decarbonization of steel production.  Due to the critical nature of the reheating furnace process, the steel industry cannot risk process interruptions and potential equipment damage towards hydrogen fuel testing in commercial units.  To help understand the benefits and impacts of using hydrogen fuel, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be used to replicate the full-scale process under a variety of conditions.  In this work, the usage of hydrogen fuel a walking beam reheating furnace is simulated to explore potential impacts the process, such as the heating of steel slabs (and potential for thermal stress), changes to emissions and flue flow rates, and potential impacts on production rates.  This includes partial (zone-limited) and whole replacement of natural gas fuel with hydrogen fuel, modification of heating zone burners using air lancing to reduce NOx emissions from hydrogen fuel usage, regenerative burner systems to improve fuel efficiency, and exploration of hydrogen and methane fuel blending in furnace operations.

The conference brought together international researchers and engineers focusing on heat and mass transfer in a variety of applications. The program of SHTC 2024 included technical paper sessions, plenary lectures, committee meetings and social events. The objectives of the meeting were to provide a forum for presentations of state-of-the-art research and opportunities for technical interactions among participants.

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On June 26, ASM Materials Camp for Teachers had a great time at CIVS to explore new digital technologies and their applications in industries and education. CIVS Associate Director for Operations, Armin Silaen and CIVS Senior Research Engineer, Kyle Toth presented CIVS overview and projects in CIVS’s newly renovated Immersive Theater. The teachers also were given demonstrations of AR and VR projects in the CIVS visualization lab.

The ASM Materials Camp for Teachers is led by Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering, Harvey Abramowitz. ASM Materials Camp for Teachers is a free, week-long, idea-generating workshop introducing teachers to methods that make math and core science principles more enticing and relevant to their middle and high school students. Materials topics are great motivators in any engineering, technology or science course as students learn concepts that are reflected in their everyday lives. The curriculum used in this camp is designed by the ASM Education Foundation, aligned with Next Generation Standards (NGSS), used annually by over 40 Camps in North America and taught by Master Teachers trained by ASM Education Foundation.

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Purdue University Northwest (PNW) will join the Chicago region’s Bloch Tech Hub, a coalition of industry, academic, government and nonprofit stakeholders led by the Chicago Quantum Exchange and its focus on driving the nation’s quantum economy, university officials announced Thursday (July 18, 2024).

PNW Chancellor Kenneth C. Holford also revealed that the university is working with other members of the Bloch on a quantum commercialization center as part of the Roberts Impact Lab, a regional technology transfer and commercialization hub under development by PNW. The impact lab, which will be located at 5454 Hohman Ave. in Hammond, is the centerpiece of a new $40 million-plus downtown innovation district.

The impact lab has secured $7.7 million in committed funding through a $3 million philanthropic gift and another $4.7 million from Indiana’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI). The funding will be used to renovate an existing 44,000-square-foot medical office building, which is under contract by PNW. PNW, Quantum Corridor Inc. and the city of Hammond recently executed a memorandum of understanding that outlines the shared vision and goals for the Roberts Impact Lab, including a commitment to cultivating the lab as a potential hub for quantum information science and technology (QIST).

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On June 13, Gerdau hosted a successful technical meeting and site visit at its Steel Plant in Monroe, MI for the $10 million project to develop and demonstrate an industrial hydrogen-fired steel reheating furnace. The project was recently awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO).  At the event, Gerdau’s President Rodrigo Belloc and Plant General Manager Daniel Mussap warmly welcomed the DOE IEDO representatives and industrial leaders of the project. Kevin Kondrat (Improvement Facilitator of Rolling Mill at Gerdau) gave an impressive overview of Gerdau Special Steel North American (GSN) and Monroe Plant.  DOE IEDO Deputy Director Paul Gauche introduced IEDO’s vision and goals about industrial decarbonization, followed by enthusiastic comments by project leaders Joao Gonzaga (Gerdau), Joe Maiolo (Linde), Bernard Chukwulebe (ArcelorMittal), and Kurt Johnson (Cleveland Cliffs).

The DOE IEDO technical manager Daniel Stewart gave a review of the project objectives and expected outcomes, and CIVS Director and Project Leader Chenn Zhou gave descriptions of project tasks and timeline. Detailed discussions on project milestones and deliverables were lively and productive.  Participants also enjoyed and appreciated a comprehensive tour of the steel plant which was well organized by Gerdau’s managers, engineers, and operators. Thank you to Gerdau Special Steel for their great hospitality. The project team members also appreciate the great support from DOE IEDO!

This project is the first-of-its-kind industry-scale demonstration of H2-fired continuous RF operation in the U.S. and creates a landmark example for relevant industrial practices worldwide. The goals of the project are to (1) conduct a field demonstration of stable single-zone H2-fired industry-scale walking-beam reheating furnace operation at standard production rates to reduce CO2 emissions in accordance with the DOE industrial decarbonization roadmap; (2) advance technical knowledge of H2 combustion impacts and develop guidelines for H2-fired RF operation to reduce CO2 emissions; (3) enhance RF energy efficiency by up to 10% to improve U.S. industry’s global competitiveness; and (4) positively impact underserved communities through a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion plan focused on workforce development and virtual training.

The project is led by PNW CIVS in collaboration with technical partners including ArcelorMittal, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Cleveland-Cliffs, Gerdau, Linde, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the Steel Manufacturing Simulation and Visualization Consortium.  Specifically, Gerdau’s reheating furnace in Monroe, MI will be used as the demonstration site for the use of hydrogen as a fuel source. Linde will provide the hydrogen gas, redesign the burners, and conduct laboratory testing to assess the impact of hydrogen on steel samples. Cleveland-Cliffs’ furnace will be used for virtual demonstration of the use of hydrogen.  ArcelorMittal will analyze scale growth using samples from Linde’s experiments. ORNL will create a reduced order model (ROM) to enable real-time furnace analysis.  ANL will perform Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) studies to evaluate the potential environmental benefits and economic viability of hydrogen use in the steel industry. CIVS will conduct CFD simulations and develop an integrated virtual reheating furnace (IVBF) simulator. The project team members have long collaboration histories with PNW CIVS and SMSVC.

For more information, see previous article.

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Congratulations to NSF RET teacher Rami Salahieh on receiving the 2024 President’s Award for Excellence in Instruction for the Valparaiso-Michigan City campus, Ivy Tech Community College. The award was presented by the President of Ivy Tech Dr. Sue Ellspermann, Ivy Tech Valparaiso Chancellor Aco Sikoski, and Vice Chancellor Lori Plank on Tuesday, May 11’s Ivy Tech Graduation ceremony at Valparaiso University. The President’s Awards for Excellence in Instruction honors Ivy Tech Community College’s most prestigious faculty and adjunct faculty for their accomplishments both in and out of the classroom. This annual tradition, which began in 1983, recognizes faculty and adjunct faculty members from Ivy Tech locations throughout the state.

Rami was selected to participate in the NSF RET program at CIVS in the summers of 2023 and 2024. Rami described how the RET experiences enhanced his teaching:

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On June 18, CIVS Director Chenn Zhou presented “Modeling Hydrogen Utilization for the Blast Furnace and Reheating Furnace” at the 48th International Technical Conference on Clean Energy in Clearwater, Florida. Co-authors for the paper include CIVS Senior Research Engineer Nicholas Walla, CIVS Associate Director for Research Tyamo Okosun, CIVS Graduate Research Assistant Samuel Nielson, CIVS Graduate student Misbahuddin Syed, CIVS Graduate student Abhishek Kolakotla, and CIVS Associate Director for Operations Armin Silaen.

The global push for decarbonization of industry emissions targets nearly every sector of the modern materials and manufacturing sectors.  Within these, steel production is one of the major focus areas given both the critical nature of steel and its role in CO2 emissions, contributing nearly 7% of total global CO2 emissions.  Approaches to decarbonization include major process changes, switching away from combustion-based systems where-possible (“electrification”), and exploration of alternative fuels such as hydrogen gas. This research presents several computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies and their findings on the partial or complete replacement of methane with hydrogen as fuel for systems in blast furnace and reheating furnaces.  In blast furnace operations, direct co-injection of H2 and natural gas into the raceway is explored to reduce coke consumption and emissions.  Raceway temperatures were found to decrease as the H2 rate was increased, primarily due to quenching effects of water vapor reactions with coke.  However, blending of 15kg of H2 resulted in a coke rate reduction of 6.3% and nearly 5.5% reduction in CO2 levels.  In the steel reheating furnace, the use of air lancing as a way to mitigate NOx production potential from pure-H2 operations was explored, finding that re-directing 17.% of air from the burners to lances could reduce NOx emissions by over 14% at the cost of around 4% lower furnace temperatures.  The implementation of regenerative burners as a way to increase fuel efficiency found that both hydrogen and methane fuels benefited similarly from the conversion, with potential dwell-time decrease of 24 minutes needed to hit target temperatures.

Attendees at the conference had representatives from five continents, including: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and United Arab Emirates.

 

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The mechanical and civil engineering (MCE) department hosted two one-week summer camps.  On June 10 and June 17, approximately 40 middle and high school students visited CIVS to learn the state-of-the-art technologies in simulation and visualization and applications. CIVS Senior Research Scientist John “Jack” Moreland and Senior Research Engineer Kyle Toth presented an overview of CIVS and impacts on the engineering industry and community. They also gave hands-on demonstrations of simulation and visualization applications as well as hands-on VR experiences. Students had the opportunity to ask questions and make connections between their current curriculum and the cutting-edge applications at CIVS.

MCE summer camp students also participated in interactive lab and classroom activities at PNW in both mechanical and civil engineering. These subject areas are degree programs offered at Purdue University Northwest. The summer camp was led by Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, Wubeshet Woldemariam.

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CIVS has kicked off its fourth year of hosting the NSF-sponsored Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program on Monday, June 17. The program is hosting STEM teachers from around the region for six weeks as they learn to carry out research using advanced simulation and visualization tools to work on real world problems from the industry. This year’s cohort includes 7 teachers who will each be conducting research related to one of the following projects:

Investigating the impact of using hydrogen instead of natural gas in power plants.
Decarbonizing flue gas in steel mill reheating furnaces by replacing natural gas with hydrogen.
Studying the effects of thermal stress in steel products.
Assessing the use of interactive virtual training software for improving safety and hygiene in the steel industry.

The opening day activities included a welcome by campus leaders and department heads, introducing teachers to their research projects and mentors, tour and demonstrations of related research, and hearing from previous year RET teachers about their research experiences. The 6-week summer program will run from June 17 – August 2. In addition to carrying out their research, teachers will also be developing lesson plans to use with their students during the school year that tie their research experiences to academic standards and introduce their students to potential careers in research and industry. At the end of the summer program, teachers will present their research methodology, results, analysis, lesson plans, and discuss follow-up plans for the academic school year.

The RET program is sponsored by the National Science Foundation with the aim of supporting authentic summer research experiences for K-College educators to foster long-term collaborations between universities, community colleges, school districts, and industry partners. The program seeks to enhance teacher scientific disciplinary knowledge and translate their research experiences into classroom activities and curricula to broaden their students’ awareness of and participation in computing and engineering pathways.

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The 13th European Electric Steelmaking Conference 2024 was held in Essen, Germany on June 3-7. CIVS Director, Dr. Chenn Zhou presented “CFD Modeling of Electric Arc Furnace for Process Optimization”. Other co-authors of the paper included CIVS graduate student Shiyu Wang, CIVS Research Scientist Dr. Orlando Ugarte, and CIVS Associate Director for Research Dr. Tyamo Okosun. Dr. Zhou described our state-of-the-art EAF model by integrating phenomenological models and various simulators, which has been used to simulate stage-by-stage EAF operations and used for troubleshooting and optimization. It will also be used for developing decarbonization technologies. Dr. Zhou’s talk generated excitement and lively discussions.

Over 350 participants from all over the world came together at the Philharmonie Essen in Germany to discuss the latest technologies and developments in the field of electric steelmaking; one of the largest in conference history. The conference provided an extensive program with over 90 presentations on topics such as electric arc furnace technologies, DRI/HBI melting, energy efficiency and strategies for environmentally friendly steelmaking. In addition to the technical dialogue, the evening event and the plant visits offered many opportunities to network. The accompanying trade exhibition also presented the latest products and services relating to electric steelmaking and provided plenty of opportunities for discussions and networking. The 13th European Electric Steelmaking Conference 2024 demonstrated that the electric steel route is a central building block for the transformation to a climate-neutral steel industry. The conference is organized by the Steel Institute VDEh.

The European steel industry has set a goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Steel companies are actively developing “smart and efficient factories” and to solve skills shortages.

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