Lighthouse Metal Power

After the realization of the proof of concept on a laboratory scale the big question was: can the technology of iron combustion be scaled up? In January 2019 the province of Noord-Brabant granted a subsidy which made the execution of the 2.4 million euro Metal Power Project possible.The goal of this project was to create the world’s first industrial demonstration system of iron combustion. In February it was known that the 100 kW iron combustion system would be demonstrated at the Swinkels Family Brewery, where it will contribute to the brewing process of the Bavaria beer brewery.

Feasibility study

At the start of 2020 the system – with a TRL of 4 – was technical ready. Next to the technical presentation a technical-economical feasibility study was executed to evaluate the costs of the value chain of different usage situations of iron fuel. Iron fuel turned out to be economically interesting for multiple industrial processes. Two PhD students and a researcher of the Technical University of Eindhoven executed fundamental research on the demonstrator to increase the common knowledge of the combustion of iron fuel. This research helps us to accelerate the future technological development, sine the outcome can be used in follow-up projects. The demonstration was executed by the Metal Power Consortium at the Royal Swinkels Family Brewers on October 29, 2020.
 

Financing

This project is made possible thanks to financial support of the province of Noord-Brabant, Uniper en Enpuls.

Participanten Metal Power Consortium

• EM Group
• Enpuls
• HeatPower
• Metalot
• Nyrstar
• Romico Hold Engineering Solutions
• Solid
• TU/e - Eindhoven University of Technology
• Uniper