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Tata Steel Pursues Low Carbon Steelmaking

06/14/2011 - Tata Steel is pursuing several technology paths to help pioneer a “breakthrough” necessary for future CO2 emissions reduction, among them is development work into new sources of fuel and energy, as well as recovery of raw materials and reducing waste.

Tata Steel acknowledges that there is a limit to CO2 emissions reduction through the traditional ways of making iron and steel, so the company is pursuing several technology paths to help pioneer the “breakthrough technology” necessary for the future.
 
The company is a leading member of the ULCOS (Ultra-Low CO2 Steelmaking) project, for which 48 companies from all over Europe have been working together since 2004. The aim is to halve CO2 emissions per tonne of steel by 2050. Several new technologies have been identified, among them HIsarna, a direct smelting technique that is now being pioneered at IJmuiden.
 
The HIsarna process saves energy by eliminating the sintering and coke production steps within ironmaking and has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions from iron production by 20%, according to Tata Steel.
 
Over the past year, a 60-ktpa HIsarna pilot plant has been built at IJmuiden. By April, it was ready for commissioning and now its first test phase is well under way. Tata Steel RD&T, led by Koen Meijer, is heading up this long-term project. If successful, full-scale production could begin around 2020.
 
Another technique being explored is to remove and store carbon safely. Tata Steel is a member of the Carbon Capture and Storage Partnership in the U.K. that is looking into how to capture and store large volumes of CO2 deep inside disused oil and gas fields in the North Sea. It is also involved in a similar project in the Netherlands.
 
Tata Steel’s £5 million Thermotec high-temperature research center in Teesside is being established to carry out development work into new sources of fuel and energy, as well as recovery of raw materials and reducing waste.
 
A new technology being pioneered at Scunthorpe is the use of algae. The technique involves passing process off-gas through a reactor containing algae, which can feed on and take out some of the CO2, the company explained. The algae can then be used in the production of biofuels and animal feed.