METALLURGY
CO2 REDUCTION
Ways to Reduce CO2 Emissions in Iron and Steel Making in Europe The key ways to reduce CO2 emissions in iron and steelmaking can be summarised under the general terms “Smart Carbon Usage” (SCU) and “Carbon Direct Avoidance”. SCU covers on the basis of carbon carriers as reductant incremental measures at the conventional blast furnace converter route and the CO2 mitigation measures by applying so-called “end-of-pipe” technologies like CCS (CO2 Capture and Storage) and CCU (Carbon Capture and Usage). CDA covers the scrap based electric arc furnace route and the iron ore based steelmaking route via direct reduction plant and electric arc furnace by the use of natural gas and/or hydrogen as reducing agent, which means the complete avoidance of coal and coke for the reduction of iron ores. The application of CCU at the conventional blast furnace converter route, which means the conversion of process gases into chemical raw materials, as well as the implementation of the direct reduction technology with hydrogen and subsequent smelting of the DRI (Direct Reduced Iron) to steel in an electric arc furnace require an immense amount of hydrogen and CO2-free electric energy.
CONTACT: hans-bodo.luengen@vdeh.de
T
he council of the European Commission has already in 2011 published a roadmap for attaining a competitive low-carbon economy by 2050. According to this the European industry would have to cut back its CO2 emissions below 1990 levels by 80 to 95 % by the year 2050. This is an enormous challenge for the total industry. The EU steel industry has, for many years, been at the forefront of R&D into breakthrough technologies via a large number of projects. An environmental friendly, innovative and competitive steel industry plays a decisive role in achieving long term climate targets. In this context, EUROFER – the European Steel Association – placed an order to the Steel Institute VDEh to update the steel roadmap of the year 2013 [1], in which the Steel Institute VDEh was also involved. Steel Institute VDEh just took over the pure technical part for this study, which started in March 2018 and ended in March 2019. The main results were presented at the 4th European Steel Technology and Ap-
14
plication Days in June 2019 in Düsseldorf [2].
CO2 emissions of the steelmaking production routes in Europe Figure 1 presents the applied production routes for steelmaking in Europe with its current specific CO2 emissions [3]. In the blast furnace converter route the
CO2 emissions of 1880 kg/t crude steel (CS) are generated directly in the production processes coke plant, sinter plant, blast furnace, converter and the subsequent process steps casting and rolling (not shown in the figure). The main CO2 amount in this route comes from the blast furnace. The reduction of iron ores in the blast furnace with
Sources: EUROFER
AUTHOR: Dr.-Ing. Hans Bodo Lüngen, Executive Member of the Managing Board, Steel Institute VDEh, Germany
Figure 1: Process routes for steelmaking in Europe [3]
December 2020 / MPT International
