Technological breakthrough urgently needed for mills to go green
Government interventions, in a big way, are urgently required for India’s leading steel mills along with their global peer groups and consultants as they are staring at a hefty 30% cost increase in making green steel under pressure from official net-zero targets while there is little evidence of technological breakthrough.
Right now, there is no single definite technology for producing ‘Green Steel’ and whatever is available is based on different production process lines with different timeframes, said steel experts at the Singapore Green Steel Forum on 23 May 2023.
Technological breakthrough is needed urgently, said the experts, adding that the Governments support will have to come in a big way as it has been done in India and China for putting electric vehicles on the roads.
“Present estimates put production of ‘Green Steel’ 30% higher compared with conventional steel that is being produced currently,” said a consultancy group official anonymously.
The debate is on — electric arc furnaces (EAF) based on green energy, which would be costly, and Blast Furnace (BF) which uses easily available and comparatively much more cheaper coal.
Coal accounts for as much as 80% of electricity generation globally.
Experts believe it will be a long-time before coal is replaced by green energy from renewable sources. “We see coal usage reduced by some percentage but not replaced,” said an energy expert at the forum, attended by over 1,000 delegates.
“Coal-fired BF also offers large volume output compared to electricity-intensive EAF,” the source added.
Nevertheless, experts were happy to note the industry-wide talks and collaboration initiatives seeking solutions for making ‘Green Steel’.
“We are glad that both India and China, as large markets and producers of steel as well as industrial products, are focused on green products under their national net-zero targets,” said a Chinese mill official.
But reducing emission and meeting net-zero targets are big challenges though the urgency is acknowledged globally to manage environmental issues, the officials said.
Only big Government initiatives, both in India and in other countries, will help accelerate the process of building trillion-dollar ‘Green Steel’ producing processes along with large scale hydrogen plants and other renewable energy sources, according to the experts, who cited the significant progress, albeit at slower pace, in deploying electric vehicles.
They have underscored the need for “collaboration and cooperation among global industries, academics and technologists to build and scale up technologies for a better tomorrow”.
As for EAF route for ‘Green Steel’, scrap is finite and not as easily available in some markets where policies remain weak on recycling material.
Though India and China have been driving recycling practices through policies and initiatives, the grade of scrap will be low, given some steel products to be scrapped are decades old, said the officials. Fiinews.com
