ORALS

The 2018 IPCC report defined the goal to limit the global warming to 1.5°C by 2050. Accordingly, that would require “rapid and far-reaching transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities”. The challenges fall on all sectors, but on energy and industry sectors they are most essential and explicitly measurable also. Iron and steel making is an energy-intensive industrial branch. It is playing a significant role in the global energy consumption, as it is largely based on fossil fuel and generates about 7% of overall carbon dioxide emissions. In order to conduct its own share in cutting CO2 emissions, great advancements must be achieved. This contribution will highlight the present situation of steel industry and show plausible scenarios for the future. Potential methods to decrease CO2 emissions in current processes via improved energy efficiency, increasing recycling and alternative energy sources are surveyed. The role of recycled steel will considerably grow over the next few decades. These factors influence, that the specific energy consumption per ton steel and respective CO2 emissions will strongly decrease. The growth of emissions will be stopped and, in spite of the predicted growth of the steel production from the current 1.8 BT up to 2.5 BT/year, the total emissions from the steel sector can be significantly cut. However, these advancements are not sufficient for the final aim of carbon neutrality. That demands more radical changes in energy sources and systems as well as in iron & steel production technologies. Still today, energy systems are largely based on fossil fuel, but extensive transfer to renewable energy is coming true soon. Corresponding developments are taking place also in steel industry. Several on-going programs and initiatives for low-carbon and carbon-free ironmaking utilizing hydrogen are in progress. These projects as well as trends of future energy systems are surveyed. Finally, a simplified holistic model is shown demonstrating the steel´s contribution in solving the global CO2 emissions problem.

References:
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