Purdue Northwest's CIVS lands $7.1 million Department of Energy grant to decarbonize steel industry

Purdue University Northwest's Center for Innovation through Visualization and Simulation landed a $7.1 million grant through the U.S. Department of Energy to research how to decarbonize the steel industry.

U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan and Department of Energy Under Secretary for Science and Innovation Geraldine Richmond toured the CIVS facility in Hammond and Cleveland-Cliffs' Indiana Harbor Works in East Chicago Friday morning to learn about new technologies that could lessen the carbon impact of local steel mills and help their steelmakers eventually reach net zero carbon emissions. They noted such research is vital to safeguarding the future of the local steel industry.

"Northwest Indiana wins. Our steel industry wins throughout the country," Mrvan said. "A headline yesterday was we produce more steel in our region than anywhere else in the nation. We're very proud of that. We welcome you to be able to show off how our educational institutions, our industry and our student body are working together for a thriving industry and for our workforce."

The federal funding will aim to help the local steel industry reduce its energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. It will fund research, development, pilot-scale technology validation and demonstration projects that could be used by steelmakers around the country.

"You guys are really prototyping and leading in this area, trying to make sure that we have steelmaking specializing in environmental applications," Richmond said.

Purdue Northwest Chancellor Kenneth Holford said the university had the largest research enterprise of any university in Northwest Indiana and specialized in applied research that benefited local industry.

"We have a tight relationship with the companies and industries around us," he said. "We were designated as an innovation and economic prosperity institution and are the only non-R1 in the state of Indiana to accomplish that. I think it comes from the relationships we built over the last couple decades with the industry around us. More than 90% of the projects we do on this campus are applied in nature. So it's not just knowledge. It's application and improvement from our activities. We have a strong commitment as an institution to making industry in the Region better and to providing opportunities for workforce development, providing our students who graduate the opportunity to be in a thriving economy in Northwest Indiana."

Professor Chenn Zhou, the CIVS director, said the research facility, has been racking up accomplishments. CIVS also recently landed a record $10 million U.S. Department of Energy research grant to develop a hydrogen-fired steel reheating furnace.

Richmond and Mrvan donned virtual reality goggles and toured the state-of-the-art facility, seeing firsthand computer visualizations that allowed them to operate virtual cranes at steel mills, do safety training, tour simulations of local mills and peer inside a blast furnace to see how it worked.

"I read all the things about CIVS and this institution and what you're doing and now I'm even more impressed," Richmond said. "The fact that you are decarbonizing the steel industry by working with companies and students in areas such as using hydrogen, using electric arc furnaces, just to see the simulations of it is great. My story to take home to the U.S. Department of Energy is very proud, I am very proud to see what you are doing and particularly to think about how my brain could go right into a blast furnace and see what the flow of hydrogen would look like. This is great. I love projects like this. It shows that our taxpayer money is going to a good place and training more workforce in the meantime."

The research grants CIVS is getting are paying dividends for Northwest Indiana and the nation, Mrvan said.

"I think it's important to put the whole picture together," Mrvan said. "When we talk decarbonization, we talk about the ability of our steel industry to thrive. We talk about renewable energy or cleaner energy. We talk about the students at the CIVS lab being able to be an example and key component of that for the world to see, for the world and our nation to see right here in Hammond, Indiana. We're creating jobs. We're creating cleaner air and cleaner water. The students are able to access technologies that will lead for generations. It all has to do with investment from the Infrastructure Bill, from this administration and from the Department of Energy. This is what we have to offer. The world can see the CIVS lab. So when we bring resources back to Northwest Indiana, to CIVS and Purdue Northwest, it's well spent. We have the industry, the workforce, the education and everyone coming together to make a greater product and to show the world we can do it."