ORIGINAL PAPER
Decarbonisation determinants of the steel industry
1
Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute PAS
Submission date: 2024-10-08
Final revision date: 2024-10-28
Acceptance date: 2024-11-19
Publication date: 2024-12-17
Gospodarka Surowcami Mineralnymi – Mineral Resources Management 2024;40(4):71-90
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
The iron and steel industry is a sector with very high energy consumption and also causing high emissions. It is difficult to imagine the development of modern sectors of the economy such as construction, transport or the machinery industry without the use of steel, so forecasts indicate that the demand for steel will increase in the future. Meanwhile, environmental concerns and concerns about climate change are growing, so the iron and steel industry faces a serious challenge related to reducing its emissions in order to achieve the goal set in the Paris Agreement, and this is even more true for this industry in the European Union. Currently, the most popular technology for steel production is the blast furnace process – basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF). This technology requires the use of coal, which is a source of emissions, so a radical technological change is needed. Decarbonising the steel industry requires changing from coal-based metallurgy to hydrogen-based and electricity-based metallurgy. Changing from primary to secondary steel production (using scrap steel) improves
the situation but is not a solution to meet growing demand. There are two main technology paths that can achieve significant CO2 reduction. The first is Smart Carbon Usage (SCU), which is based on the gradual reduction of coal consumption, including the use of by-product gases for further conversion into valuable products. The second emerging technology path is Carbon Direct Avoidance (CDA). These and other developing methods of low-emission or zero-emission metallurgy are discussed in the article. Unfortunately, some of these methods are not mature and their final commercialisation requires overcoming a number of problems.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was carried out as part of the statutory activity of the Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The Authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
METADATA IN OTHER LANGUAGES:
Polish
Determinanty dekarbonizacji przemysłu stalowego
technologie, dekarbonizacja, przemysł stalowy
Przemysł żelaza i stali jest to sektor o bardzo wysokim zużyciu energii, a także powodujący wysokie emisje. Trudno sobie wyobrazić rozwój współczesnych sektorów gospodarki takich jak budownictwo, transport czy przemysł maszynowy bez wykorzystania stali, zatem prognozy wskazują, że zapotrzebowanie na stali będzie w przyszłości rosło. Tymczasem zyskują na znaczeniu obawy o środowisko i zmiany klimatyczne, zatem przemysł żelazny i stalowy stoi przed poważnym wyzwaniem związanym z redukcją emisji, aby osiągnąć cel wyznaczony w porozumieniu paryskim, a tym bardziej dotyczy to tej branży w Unii Europejskiej. Obecnie najpopularniejszą technologią służącą produkcji stali jest proces wielkiego pieca – podstawowego pieca tlenowego (BF-BOF). Ta technologia wymaga wykorzystania węgla, stanowiącego źródło emisji, zatem potrzebna jest radykalna zmiana technologiczna. Dekarbonizacja przemysłu stalowego wymaga zmiany metalurgii opartej na węglu na metalurgię opartą na wodorze i energii elektrycznej. Zmiana z produkcji stali pierwotnej na wtórną (wykorzystującą złom stalowy) poprawia sytuację, ale nie jest to rozwiązanie zapewniające zaspokojenie rosnącego popytu. Istnieją dwie główne ścieżki technologiczne, które prowadzą do osiągnięcia znaczącej redukcji CO2. Pierwsza z nich to Smart Carbon Usage (SCU). Druga rozwijająca się aktualnie ścieżka zmian technologicznych to bezpośrednie unikanie emisji dwutlenku węgla (CDA). Te i inne rozwijające się metody niskoemisyjnej lub bezemisyjnej metalurgii zostały omówione w artykule. Niestety niektóre z tych metod nie są na tyle rozwinięte, a ich ostateczna komercjalizacja wymaga pokonania wielu problemów.
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