About
After realization of the lab-scale proof of concept, the big question was: can the technology of iron combustion be scaled up ?? In January 2019, the province of Noord-Brabant granted a subsidy that made execution of the 2,4 million euro Metal Power Project possible. The aim of this project was to create the world’s first industrial iron combustion demonstration system. In February 2019, it was released that the 100 kW iron combustion system will be demonstrated at Swinkels Family Brewery, where it will contribute to the brewing process in the Bavaria beer brewery.
At the start of 2020, the system – having a TRL of 4 – was technically finished. Next to the technical achievement, a techno-economic feasibility study was executed to evaluate the value-chain costs for different iron fuel use cases. Iron fuel was indicated to be economically interesting for multiple industrial processes. Currently, two PhD students and one researcher of Eindhoven University of Technology execute fundamental research on the demonstrator to increase the general knowledge about iron fuel combustion. This research helps us to accelerate future technological development as the outcomes will be used in succeeding projects.The demonstration at Swinkels was planned for 19th May 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 crisis, it has been postponed to the 29th of October 2020.