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Sustainable Production of Steel–Carbon Neutrality and Low Life Cycle Emission
Journal
Journal of the Indian Institute of Science
ISSN
09704140
Date Issued
2022-01-01
Author(s)
Sambandam, Manjini
Nurni, Viswanathan N.
Jayaraj, Soorya Prakash
Abstract
Steel is most preferred and largest consumed engineering material. It is also the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Conventional steel production is highly carbon intensive and produces about 2.2 tCO2 per tonne of steel produced. With predicted steel production growth of 25–30% by 2050, steel sector will be responsible for the largest generation of anthropogenic emissions among the process industries. Various steel-making process improvisations like Blast Furnace top gas recycling, usage of bio-mass, replacement of coke with hydrogen for reduction, fuel change over to natural gas can drastically bring down the emission levels of CO2. Serious thought is given towards the reduction of CO2 emissions through CCS (CO2 Capture and Storage) and reutilization of caught carbon for chemical manufacturing. Means of carbonless steel production using hydrogen generated from renewable energy source are being considered to bring carbon neutrality to steel production by 2050. Steelmaking through the electrical arc furnace using electricity from renewable sources is gaining popularity considering the expected increase in scrap generation from 30 to 50% and nearly zero carbon footprint. The further reduction of CO2 emission during the lifetime of use of steel is expected through the usage of lightweight materials in automobiles which lowers the fuel consumption and hence the lower CO2 generation. Various routes being explored to bring CO2 emissions to a lower level of 0.4–0.5t CO2/t steel by enhancement of existing production facilities and by the deployment of innovative methods are reviewed.
Volume
102