Technical,economic, and environmental analyses of the modernization of a chamber furnace operating on natural gas or hydrogen

The paper presents a technical, economic and environmental analyses of a chamber furnace used to heat the charge before forging. The energy efficiency of the furnace before the modernization was 18%, after the modernization it was 31% (partial modernization due to large financial outlays). Other variants were also analysed: complete modernization, the variant of furnace modernization with 30% hydrogen content in the gas and the variant with 100% hydrogen as fuel. The analyses showed that with the current gas price (0.025 EUR/kWh) and the price of emission allowances (nearly 60 EUR/MgCO₂) and 100 cycles/year, the difference in Net Present Value (NPV) before base variant and partial modernization is around 900,000 EUR and before base variant and full modernization is 1,200,000 EUR. The introduction of the gas and 30% of hydrogen co-combustion option versus the base scenario option for 150 cycles per year results in a NPV difference of at least 2 million EUR. The option of 100% hydrogen as a fuel is the most advantageous from the point of view of reducing CO₂ emissions - it is largely influenced by the rising prices of CO₂ emission allowances.