steel industry

Less coal for making steel

September 5, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Steel is primarily produced using one of two methods: blast furnaces or electric arc furnaces. The first blast furnaces were built in the 14th century. Making steel in a blast furnace starts by melting the raw materials of iron ore, limestone, and coal at very high temperatures. The resultant reactions ultimately lead to two products: iron saturated with carbon and carbon dioxide. A second furnace reacts the liquid iron with oxygen to remove the carbon and results in steel along with even more carbon dioxide.

Making steel using an electric arc furnace is considerably less emissions-intensive and more sustainable. So-called circular steel making powered by electric arc furnaces uses electricity to melt scrap and other input materials and turn them into high-quality steel. Of course, to really minimize the emissions associated with steelmaking, the arc furnaces need to get their power from renewable energy sources.

The global steel industry is turning away from polluting coal-fired blast furnaces and towards electric arc furnaces, which now account for roughly half of all planned new steelmaking capacity. This represents real progress towards a green steel transition.

By the end of this decade, electric arc furnaces will account for more than a third of steelmaking. However, there are still plenty of new coal-based steel furnaces being built. So even as electric arc furnaces account for a greater share of steelmaking, these new coal furnaces will still drive emissions upward. Environmental advocates argue that what the steel industry needs is to make clean development a true priority and back away from coal-based developments.

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Steelmakers Increasingly Forgoing Coal, Building Electric

Photo, posted July 16, 2018, courtesy of Daniel Steelman via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Electric Steel Furnaces | Earth Wise

August 29, 2023 By EarthWise 1 Comment

Steel was first made thousands of years ago. The discovery that heating up iron ore in a hot enough charcoal fire could purify the iron into a strong and valuable material was the start of the Iron Age. In many ways, things have changed very little since then.

Global iron and steel production accounts for 7% of society’s carbon emissions. Making steel generally involves burning coal in a blast furnace to produce the very high temperatures required to turn iron into steel. The coal is used both as a feedstock and as a fuel. Steel is made from iron and a substance called coke, which is basically coal that has been carbonized at high temperatures. Coal itself is burned to provide the high temperatures needed.

A new analysis from the Global Energy Monitor think tank shows that the global steel industry is slowly embracing electric-arc furnaces to produce the necessary heat, which is a cleaner alternative. The analysis found that 43% of forthcoming steelmaking capacity will rely on electric-arc furnaces, up from 33% last year.

According to the study, the shift to cleaner steel is not happening fast enough. To meet the emissions reductions goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, electric-arc furnaces must account for 53% of global steelmaking capacity by 2050. Based on the current plans, those furnaces would only account for 32% of total capacity by that year.

In order to meet these goals, the steel industry will need to retire or cancel about 381 million tons of coal-based manufacturing capacity and add 670 million tons of electric-arc furnace capacity.

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Steel Industry Pivoting to Electric Furnaces, Analysis Shows

Photo, posted March 3, 2012, courtesy of Jeronimo Nisa via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The Enormous Cost Of Steel Corrosion | Earth Wise

February 28, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Global steel production has been rising for decades. Because steel corrodes over time, part of the demand for more steel comes from the need to replace the steel used in construction materials – in everything from bridges to cars – that has become corroded over time. Studies have estimated that the economic cost of corrosion is an astonishing 3 to 4% of a nation’s gross domestic product. Globally, this means that steel corrosion costs the world trillions – yes, trillions with a T – of dollars each year.

On top of the staggering economic impact of corrosion, there is the fact that steel production is one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters of any industry, accounting for more than 25% of all manufacturing sector carbon emissions. In fact, steel manufacturing causes over 10% of total global carbon emissions.

As a result of regulations placed on the steel industry, technological advances in the steelmaking process have resulted in a 61% reduction in the industry’s energy consumption over the last 50 years. There are continuing efforts to reduce the energy consumption of steel making and to move away from the use of fossil fuels to produce the needed energy. But without significant improvements, just the emissions associated with replacing corroded steel could make the goals set by the Paris Climate Agreement unfeasible.

It’s hard to believe that something costing the world trillions of dollars and has a major negative impact on the climate is largely invisible. Steel corrosion is an enormous societal challenge that has gone under the radar for decades and therefore has not received anything like the attention it deserves.

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Reducing steel corrosion vital to combating climate change

Photo, posted July 24, 2008, courtesy of Phil Whitehouse via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Solar-Powered Steel Mill | Earth Wise

November 17, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The steel industry is an essential part of modern society. Economically, the U.S. steel industry produces goods valued at more than $100 billion a year and employs more than 80,000 people. The steel industry is also a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. On average, 1.85 tons of CO2 are emitted for every ton of steel produced. Overall, the steel industry generates between 7 and 9% of the direct emissions that come from the global use of fossil fuel.

The industry is determined to reduce its environmental impact. Steel is 100% recyclable and indeed much of it is recycled. Over 2 billion tons of steel were produced in 2019. Meanwhile, more than 700 million tons of steel scrap are recycled each year. Recycling greatly reduces the energy impact of the steel industry.

The industry has also significantly reduced its energy usage over the years using sophisticated energy management systems and energy recovery efforts. Since 1960, the amount of energy needed to produce a ton of steel has dropped by 60%. But making steel is still very energy intensive.

Recently, Lightsource bp announced that its 300 megawatt Bighorn Solar project in Colorado will be used to allow EVRAZ’s Pueblo steel mill to be the world’s first steel mill to run almost entirely on solar power.

The solar project, which will be fully online this month, is the largest on-site solar facility in the U.S. dedicated to a single customer. (The Bighorn Solar project features 750,000 solar panels located on 1,800 acres).

The project demonstrates that even challenging industrial sectors can be decarbonized when companies work together on innovative solutions.

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Colorado steel mill becomes ‘world’s first’ to be run almost entirely on solar

Photo, posted October 16, 2017, courtesy of UC Davis College of Engineering via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.