Activities of the commission of the European communities in the field of patent information

Abstract

Steel is perhaps the most important construction material in the world, providing services for the well-being of mankind. An increased demand for steel services creates demand for steel consumption, and the lifetime of the products in use determines the recycling potential and the need for replacement. At the same time the steel sector contributes 9% to global energy consumption and process-related carbon emissions. This is a figure that is very much dependent on the amount of steel recycled, because production of steel from recycled material can be carried out with much less energy and CO2 emissions.Considering volume, steel is already the most recycled metal, and there is a well-functioning business structure for the recycling of steel. Currently about 40% of the steel produced comes from recycled material. If and when the increase in world consumption of steel decreases, there will be numerous possibilities of producing a large amount of the steel from recycled scrap.Based on the existing process technology for scrap sorting and steel processing and on what is known about scrap quality, possible limitations and possible actions, the chapter discusses possibilities to reach a truly sustainable steel recycling. The greatest challenge for the steel and scrap processing industry to obtain long term sustainable steel recycling is perhaps the question of scrap quality and the need to avoid quality losses when recycling steel. As the share of steel produced from ore has increased in the last decade, accumulation of tramp elements has not been an issue of high importance recently, but it is an issue that has to be tackled in the future.