Abstract
The steel industry is an important engine for sustainable growth, added value, and high-quality employment within the European Union. It is committed to reducing its CO2 emissions due to production by up to 50% by 2030 compared to 1990′s level by developing and upscaling the technologies required to contribute to European initiatives, such as the Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) and the European Green Deal (EGD). The Clean Steel Partnership (CSP, a public–private partnership), which is led by the European Steel Association (EUROFER) and the European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP), defined technological CO2 mitigation pathways comprising carbon direct avoidance (CDA), smart carbon usage SCU), and a circular economy (CE). CE approaches ensure competitiveness through increased resource efficiency and sustainability and consist of different issues, such as the valorization of steelmaking residues (dusts, slags, sludge) for internal recycling in the steelmaking process, enhanced steel recycling (scrap use), the use of secondary carbon carriers from non-steel sectors as a reducing agent and energy source in the steelmaking process chain, and CE business models (supply chain analyses). The current paper gives an overview of different technological CE approaches as obtained in a dedicated workshop called “Resi4Future—Residue valorization in iron and steel industry: sustainable solutions for a cleaner and more competitive future Europe” that was organized by ESTEP to focus on future challenges toward the final goal of industrial deployment.
Highlights
The steel industry is an important engine for sustainable growth, adding value, and high-quality employment within the European Union
In 2019, 158.8 million tonnes of crude steel were produced in Europe (EU28), 93.9 million tonnes (59.1%) of which was via the blast furnace (BF)-basic oxygen furnace (BOF) route and 64.9 million tonnes (40.9%) was via the scrap-based electric arc furnace (EAF) route [1]
In a first step, fine EAF dust with a typical partial size below 5 μm is formed into small pellets with water and dried to a humidity level below 6% to be charged into a drum furnace, where the halogens and lead are vaporized by means of a natural gas burner at temperatures around 1100 ◦ C
Summary
The steel industry is an important engine for sustainable growth, adding value, and high-quality employment within the European Union. It is committed to reducing its CO2 emissions from production by up to 50% by 2030 compared to 19900 s level by developing and upscaling technologies. CSP targets the development of technologies at technological readiness level (TRL) 8 to reduce CO2 emissions stemming from EU steel production by. The latest ongoing research activities dedicated to CE in the steel sector were presented at a workshop called “Resi4Future-Residue valorization in iron and steel industry-sustainable solutions for a cleaner and more competitive future Europe.”. This event was organized by the focus group “Circular Economy” from the European Steel. The CE approaches presented will be linked to the CSP roadmap
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