Team Members: Aidan Gee, Timothy Kwok, Laurent Ludwig, Raiyan Sakib

Department: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Turning steelmaking’s carbon-rich off-gas into blue hydrogen, our team’s integrated process converts ≥97 % of CO to H₂, captures ≥95 % of the CO₂, and recovers heat to generate on-site power—delivering clean fuel and revenue from a single waste stream. 

Steel plants vent millions of cubic meters of CO-rich furnace gas each year, wasting energy and emitting CO₂. We propose a modular retrofit that transforms this liability into three profit centers: hydrogen, captured CO₂, and electricity. Aspen Plus simulations size two staged water-gas-shift reactors achieving ≥97 % CO conversion, followed by amine absorption to capture ≥95 % of the CO₂ and PSA units delivering ≥95 %-pure H₂ at ≥90 % recovery. Heat released in the exothermic shift drives a steam turbine, offsetting utility costs. Economic modeling with CAPCOST and Monte-Carlo analysis projects an expected 14 % internal rate of return and a discounted payback of 9.6 years.