Iron & Steel

Enabling low-carbon emissions steelmaking through customized and cost-effective solutions based on our IP.

The steel industry accounts for 3 to 4 gigatonne or about ~7% to 9% of the total annual anthropogenic CO2 emissions. The central problem in decarbonizing the steel value chain is replacing fossil fuels – that play a critical role in the thermo-chemical production processes of iron & steel. Customized solutions oriented towards these processes are therefore required for large scale CO2 abatement, so that the steel sector does not become a blindspot, inhibiting the energy transition journey to a net-zero future.

Depending on the production route (scrap-EAF, DRI-EAF or BF-BOF), CO2 emissions range from ~0.4 to over 2 tonnes per tonne of crude steel. While most of the major steel players in the world have set out ambitious carbon abatement goals (short term reduction of ~30% CO2 by 2030 and long term target of carbon neutrality by 2050), there are several challenges in the way:

  • Substitution of the BF-BOF route:

    Coal and/or Natural Gas are integral to steel production, especially the BF-BOF route, where they are used both as energy source and reductant. Although developmental work is in progress to replace PCI/NG with Hydrogen, substituting coke within the BF is not feasible due to its unique characteristics that enables it to provide mechanical support to the BF burden. Additionally, replacing the highly stable, scalable and flexible BF-BOF route that can produce high quality flat products with an alternative route translates to a loss of enormous amount of sunk-cost that went into building these facilities – more so in developing nations where the BF-BOF fleet is relatively young.

  • Dependence on renewable energy:

    Most of the recently proposed steel making routes/technologies depend on the steady availability of green energy and green H2 at scale and reasonable costs. However, in addition to the scalability and intermittency challenges of renewables, the production cost of green H2 using renewables is very high at US$ 5 to 12 per kg, depending on the production route. While the costs are expected to reduce over the next two decades, it is critical to look for alternative production routes of ‘Clean H2’, that can facilitate its availability at scale and competitive costs for iron & steel production.

  • Suitability of alternative reductant/fuel:

    While H2 and biomass are two promising alternatives for replacing fossil fuels in steel production, there are constraints regarding the availability of green H2, along with additional energy requirements and GHG emissions. The stable and homogeneous availability of biomass is also a constraint in its commercial use for steel production.

Solutions

Dastur Energy is helping steel producers transition to low-carbon emissions steel through viable mega-scale solutions across the entire steel production value chain

  • Gas conditioning, fuel conversion, CO2 capture retrofit and generation of low carbon energy carriers:

    Our innovative system-level designs optimize gas conditioning & mixing, fuel conversion, integrated with appropriate pre or post-combustion carbon capture. Our solutions optimize the quality and calorie enhancement of steel plant waste gases, leading to low carbon energy carriers such as syngas, along with maximization of CO2 capture at very competitive costs of 30 to 40 US$/tonne (for EOR grade CO2). The optimal product options & volumes, system configuration, component sizing & design, and overall integrated system architecture is determined based on the constraints of the steel plant viz. demand, supply and CO2 concentration of various waste gases, cost of power & utilities and availability of plot.

  • H2 based iron & steelmaking:

    Due to its clean combustion characteristics and favorable physico-chemical properties (small molecular diameter, high diffusivity and good reducing nature), H2 has the potential to significantly reduce CO2 emissions from the iron making process, specifically via the ‘direct reduction (DR)’ route. In order to evaluate the feasibility of ‘H2-based DR + EAF’ route of steelmaking, we develop customized process models that simulate the complex behavior of iron ore reduction using H2 during the DRI making process. In order to overcome the current scale and cost challenges of green H2, we develop client-specific lowest cost & sustainable H2 sourcing strategies, ranging from gasification of coal, petcoke, biomass, MSW to reforming of natural gas to waste gas utilization – in combination with CCUS. Based on these pathways, we have recently designed systems for the production of ‘Clean H2’ at cash costs of <US$ 1/kg. Depending on the relative availability and cost of feedstocks such as DRI, scrap & pigs, our charge-mix models enable production of zero or low-carbon emissions steel at the lowest cost.

  • CO2 capture & utilization:

    We are architecting pathways for industrial-scale & commercially viable CO2 capture from hard to decarbonize sectors such as steel and other industrial sources. Our system design from the plant (industrial source) boundary to the utilization/consumption point is based on a critical evaluation and analysis of the various possible utilization routes, their technology readiness & efficacy, conversion costs, market demands, extant policies, conditioning (purification & compression) requirements and transportation infrastructure availability pipelines, ships or trucks).

  • Feedstock optimization:

    Our robust process models accurately predict the appropriate feedstock blends required for the low-carbon emission steel production process:

  1.  Iron making: Coal / Coke / Natural Gas / Syngas / H2 / Biomass / Plastics
  2.  Steel making: Hot Metal / Scrap / DRI / HBI / Pig iron
  3.  Syngas (as a reducing agent): Coal / Petcoke / Biomass

Industry Solutions

Case Studies

Iron-and-Steel-case-1

Burns Harbor, Indiana USA:

We are working on a US DOE-funded study for 2 mtpa CO2 capture from the BF gases at Cleveland Cliff’s 5 mtpa steel plant at Burns Harbor, Indiana. The goal of the project is to enable the production of low carbon emissions steel in a non-intrusive manner with favourable capture economics of US$ 30 – 40/tonne of CO2. This is made possible using our proprietary system design scheme for appropriate gas conditioning & treatment to optimize the carbon capture cost and permanent sequestration in nearby geological storages, thus enabling 45Q tax credits (up to US$ 50/tonne of CO2).

Architecture

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Iron-and-Steel-case-2-1

JSPL, Angul India:

With JSPL, we have worked on the system design review and evaluation for DRI production using syngas generated from the gasification of coal. JSPL’s fixed bed gasifier uses indigenous low-rank Indian coals to generate syngas rich in CO and H2. Syngas is appropriately treated and conditioned to produce a high concentration CO2 stream amenable for cost-effective capture, and syngas, which can be used to make DRI and/or downstream chemicals.

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