Open / Close Advertisement

ULCOS Consortium Targets Further Reduction of Steel Industry CO2 Emissions

02/01/2005 - A consortium of 48 European companies and organizations has entered into an agreement to launch a cooperative research and development initiative to search for new steel production processes that would drastically reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions.

A consortium of 48 European companies and organizations has entered into an agreement to launch a cooperative research and development initiative to search for new steel production processes that would drastically reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions.

The ULCOS program is part of a multidisciplinary steel research platform co-financed by the innovation programs of the European Commission officially launched on March 12, 2004.

The report of the Group of Personalities of the Steel Technology Platform identified the need for the sustainability of steel production to be enhanced through massive reductions in CO2 emissions. This is an ambitious requirement, as the integrated steel production route generates about two tons of CO2 per ton of steel. An intense effort by the industry has facilitated reduction of the energy required for steel production: specific energy consumption has decreased by 60% in the last 40 years, while the total CO2 emissions of the steel industry were reduced by 50% over the same period.

To go beyond these major achievements and decrease emissions by a significant factor in line with the probable post-Kyoto requirements for the future, the steel industry needs to develop new process paradigms based on breakthrough technologies.

The initiative will start with a five-year exploratory phase, which should be followed by a pilot phase lasting for another five years before a first commercial implementation can be considered.

The consortium, called ULCOS (an acronym for Ultra Low CO2 Steelmaking), is led by a core group of steel producers comprising Arcelor, Corus, ThyssenKrupp Stahl, Riva, Voestalpine, Saarstahl and Dillinger Hüttenwerke, and the ore and pellet producer LKAB, with Arcelor as the consortium's coordinator. The consortium also includes steel producers SSAB and Ruukki, as well as the following suppliers to the steel industry: L'Air Liquide, Danieli-Corus, EDF, Ferrostaal, Küttner, Lhoist, Paul Wurth, Statoil, VAI.

Research institutes participating in the consortium include Alphea, Armines, BFI, BRGM, CIRAD, CRM, CSM, ECN, GEUS, CSIC/INCAR, IPTS, MEFOS, SINTEF, SINTEF-Petroleum and Tecnalia. Small and medium business participants include Europlasma, GVS, Metalysis and BTG. Participating universities include the University of Aveiro, Portugal, LEPII; University of Grenoble, France; University of Kassel, Germany; University of Leoben, Austria; Institut Polytechnique de Nancy, France; University of Luleå, Sweden; NTNU, Trondheim, Norway; and SSSA, Pisa, Italy.

The ULCOS R&D program targets the development of innovative, breakthrough solutions to further decrease the steel industry’s CO2 emissions. The objective is a significant reduction of specific CO2 emissions as compared to those of a modern blast furnace. Within five years, the project is to deliver a concept process route, based on iron ore, with a verification of its feasibility in terms of technology, economic projections and social acceptability.

ULCOS will examine a set of breakthrough concepts for making steel that have the potential of reducing the specific CO2 emissions of the steel industry by 30 to 70%. One technology is based on the recycling of blast furnace top gas after decarbonatation. CO2 capture and storage technologies can be added. Other breakthrough and radical technologies will also be examined, including electrolysis, use of hydrogen, use of carbon and natural gas with CO2 capture and sequestration in reactors different from the blast furnace, and utilization of biomass.

At the end of this first phase one or more appropriate projects will be selected for further evaluation based on technical and economic considerations. Selected projects would then enter a pilot phase that would last another five years to finally confirm their technical and economic viability.