Four large families of CO2 capture technologies have been developed: absorption, mostly with amines; ad-sorption primarily on metal organic framework; membrane separation; and cryogenic; and some combina-tion of two technologies to achieve optimum efficiency and lower cost. Key to efficient CO2 capture are the pollutants NOx, SOx, mercury, HF, dust, etc., and other main molecules, N2, O2, H2O and CO. This article examines which of the components will need to be reduced, at what levels (lower than currently mandated by the regulations) and which technologies are needed.

The transition from integrated steelmaking, the blast furnace (BF)-basic oxygen furnace flowsheet, to alter-native flowsheets with lower greenhouse gas emissions is a growing trend for the decarbonization of the iron and steel industry. One such flowsheet is the direct reduced iron (DRI)-electric arc furnace (EAF) route. However, the DRI-EAF route is inefficient when using lower-grade, higher-gangue iron ores traditionally processed in the BF, which is the majority of iron ore supply in the world. The ability to effectively process BF-grade iron ore with a low-emission flowsheet is critical to the decarbonization of the steel industry glob-ally. This study proposes the use of electric smelting furnace to improve the overall process yield and effi-ciency when using BF-grade iron ore and compares it to the established DRI-EAF process. 

In the last decade, decarbonization of the steel industry has motivated comprehensive investigation on the use of hydrogen fuel in steelmaking. However, the increased heat output of hydrogen-fueled burners also creates opportunities for furnace throughput improvements. The primary factors that affect steel quality and productivity are the uniform distribution of heat, followed by slab residence time in the reheating furnace. Using computational fluid dynamics to model hydrogen utilization and comparing the results to traditional natural gas combustion, opportunities for increased furnace throughput were found due to the higher rela-tive heat output of hydrogen as a fuel. One approach covered in this study is the use of regenerative burners in a reheating furnace using hydrogen as fuel. Apart from the decarbonization achieved while using hydro-gen as fuel, the additional effect of using regenerative burners in such a furnace is studied with respect to thermal efficiency and productivity increase.

New environmentally friendly processes and the reduction of pollutant emissions are the new driving force of the steelmaking industry. Magnesia chrome bricks fired above 1,700°C are used in the safety lining of stainless steel ladles due to their high physical and mechanical properties and dimensional stability. Tem-pered bricks were developed using a special binder system that eliminates the firing process and CO2 emis-sions related to burning fossil fuels. The new brick is based on MgO-ZnO with free chrome and carbon. Properties and performance results of fired and tempered brick used in the safety lining of the stainless steel ladle will be presented in this article.