Huge investments needed for low-carbon
transition of Indian steel industry - Expert
Carbon dioxide (CO2)concentration in the atmosphere today is at the highest level in the last 8,000years and annual global
CO2 emissions is nearly 40
gigatonnes (GT).
The share of the steel industry is total emissions is9%. Renewables, hydrogenfuel and battery technologies are moving at a fast
pace in decarbonising thepower and mobility sectors. However, in a business-as-usual
scenario, the steel industry’s share in global man-made emissions may reach 40% in the next 20-25 years, said Debashish
Bhattacharjee, VP, Technology & R&D, Tata Steel.
Replacing coke
“For decarbonisation of the steel sector the focus should
primarily be on the BF-BOF process, as it is the predominantroute of steel production today. Emissions in the integrated
process is due to usage of coke in the BF, which plays therole of a reductant, produces heat, and provides the physicalstructure of the BF,” said Bhattacharjee.
Replacing coke as a reductant in the BF is possible throughhydrogen and heating can be provided through plasma torches
powered by green electricity, but coke does not have a replacement when it comes to providing the physical structureof the BF. Hydrogen use can only reduce about 15-20% ofcoke use in the BF.
Makeshift technologies“Replacing coke with hydrogen, coke oven gas (COG) andbiochar in the BF are all makeshift decarbonisation strategies
for which we do not need to change the set up much. We justneed to change the gas or reductant composition throughusage of scrap in the BF, increasing the use of scrap in theBOF, introducing biochar in the BF instead of PCI, as it has
a negative C02 footprint. These technologies are ready for
implementation in live BFs but their CO2 reduction potential
is just about 20%,” he informed.
In fact, deeper decarbonisation technologies either necessitate
retrofits or are transformational in nature. Naturally, the readiness level of these technologies is lower compared to makeshift technologies. For example, molten oxide electrolysis,electrowinning or even hydrogen-based DRI are transformational technologies with low readiness level.
Outlook to 2030
So, with makeshift technologies steelmakers have to rely on

Currently, the key tasks are:* High-efficiency electrolysis for hydrogen production fromaround 50% efficiency levels at present* Non-electrolytic processes of hydrogen production* Cheap and safe hydrogen storage options
Net-zero challenge
To achieve net-zero, wind energy capacity has to go up by
15%, solar by 25%, and global grid capacity almost threetimes that of the current level, Bhattacharjee said. Total

CCUS to control emissions. In eastern India, a major steelmaking hub, there are no proven geologic sites for sequestration ofcaptured CO2. So, steelmakers need to rely on CO2 utilisation,the easiest way of fixing the CO2 in is methanol. Roughly, a 10
mnt/year steel plant emits 22 mnt of CO2. So, CCUS will need
to be adopted to abate that 22 mnt in the absence of makeshifttechnologies.
“Say, in 2030, India produces 175 mnt of crude steel and theemissions intensity is reduced to 2.3 tCO2/tcs then 400 mnt ofCO2 will need to be sequestered,” contended Bhattacharjee. “Ifmakeshift technologies are implemented and the emissions intensity falls to 1.8 tCO2/tcs, still we would need to capture 315mnt of CO2. The additional cost of reducing emissions intensity
to 1.8 tCO2/tcs is $200/tcs provided green hydrogen is available
at $4/kg,” he said. However, Deependra Kashiva, DG, SIMA
feels that above estimated production of 175 mnt of crude steel
is on the conservative side in view of the production of 144mnt
in F.Y. 24 and the current growth rate.
For achieving 1.8 tCO2/tcs by 2030 India would need 60 CCU
units, additional cost will be around INR 45,000 crore, additional cost for hydrogen (pegging industry requirement at 9 mnt inview of 175 mnt of steel production) will be INR 4.5 lakh crore,and power requirement will be around 60 GW.
Tata Steel has generated enough data at the mill level with its
5 tpd CCUS pilot and is planning to scale it up to 15 tpd, heinformed.
Transition tasks
The key levers are using more scrap and natural gas, suppliesof which are constrained. Hydrogen DRI needs green hydrogenand iron ore of high grade which, going forward, will not beAustralian much less Indian ore, but South American andWest African ore. Use of hydrogen, NG, and scrap through aremelter, which can use low-grade ore, is possible. However, it
is not ideal due to the sheer scale of the iron and steel industry.
Biomass is limited in supply and competes with agriculturalland, which is a big challenge.

number of EVs must rise at least 60 times. The material requirement for this is huge. Copper and nickel demand will go up
by 50-70%, cobalt by 150%, lithium and graphite demand willrise 6-7 times. More than 5 billion tonnes (bnt) of steel will berequired and over 9 bnt of aluminium.
“Mining these materials will be impossible and so urban mining
will hold the key,” he said. The government needs to prioritise
green procurement policies, offer incentives for low-carbon
steel, introduce carbon taxes, and facilitate urban mining.
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Prospects of using Electric Smelting Furnace
to overcome the raw material quality challenge
for steel decarbonisation?
There is a growing concern about the depletion of high gradeiron ore and consequently production of low grade DRI leading to high energy consumption which would be impediment
to the steel producers to mitigate carbon footprints.
With a view to facilitating the use of generally below-DR
grade iron ore for production of DRI and its subsequentmelting and refinement, the electric smelting furnace (ESF)
retains the potential to lower steelmaking emissions, although adoption of renewable electricity is a must.

deep greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions abatement as, unlike theBF, the DRI plant does not require carbon-containing coke tooperate and instead may use hydrogen-containing gas mixtures
to chemically convert iron ore into iron, which will greatly lower the CO2 emissions intensity, experts from BHP note.
Presently, these process gas mixtures are derived from fossil
fuels, but in the future there is the potential to transition DRI
process gas toward 100% hydrogen. Therein lies the potential ofDRI.

“It is a fact universally accepted that there is simply notenough high-quality iron ore suitable for efficient DRI/EAF
production to meet global steel demand,” a steel mill spokesperson informed BigMint.

EAF challenges* The EAF was originally designed and optimised for rapidly
melting scrap in small batches particularly for making alloy andspecial steel.

“DRI production must use the very highest quality iron ore,with average iron content in the range of 67% Fe. Suchdeposits, worldwide, are scarce,” he said.

*When EAFs are operated with high levels of DRI, higher slag
volumes are generated from the gangue impurities and iron iseasily lost to this slag. Losing iron in the process is expensive
and inefficient

As per experts, the ESF technology has the promise to
emerge as a significant low-carbon alternative, among a hostof other smelting reduction technologies, amid general tightness in availability of DR-grade iron ore globally.

* To limit iron losses in the EAF, the DRI unit is also configured
to metallise as much of the iron ore as possible and the DRI thatis produced is usually mixed with at least 50% scrap.

Transition pathways
The decarbonisation of the global steel industry will depend on companies switching to low-emissions steelmaking through a) aligning existing BF-BOF processes withstate-of-the-art technologies such as top gas recycling andcarbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS); b) DRI-EAF
technologies with lower CO2 footprint, including a host of
smelting reduction technologies; and c) direct electrolysis ofiron ore.

ESF features*Unlike EAFs, the ESF can work on any sort of physical DRI
and a metallization level much lower than required for EAF
processes (<85% Fe)

It is an accepted fact that direct electrolysis – such asprocesses pioneered by Boston Metal which have raked inconsiderable investments – still has a long way to go.

*The furnace operating environment also allows the slag
chemistry to be controlled in a way that resembles BF slag
rather than EAF slag.

DRI potential
After 2030, gas based DRI capacity expansion will need toaccelerate to maintain a net-zero pathway. Bloomberg NewEnergy Finance anticipates 56% of primary steel production
coming from DRI-EAF processes using hydrogen and 3%
from DRI-EAF processes based on natural gas by 2050
under a net-zero steel sector scenario.

*Molten metal and slag are periodically drained from the furnace through tap holes without stopping the furnace operation

This would mean 840 mnt of steel production fromDRI-EAF-hydrogen processes and 49 mnt fromDRI-EAF-natural gas processes by 2050, requiring a tenfold
rise in DR-grade supply unless technology innovations allow
DRI processes to use lower-grade ore. Incidentally, as per
the WSA, route wise production of crude steel in 2023 was
BOF – 71.1 %, EAF – 28.6%, Others – 0.39.
The electric furnace routes that use DRI are appealing for*The ESF operates continuously, with reducing conditions
maintained by adding small amounts of carbon. DRI is
continuously fed to the furnace to maintain a layer of gradually
reducing and melting solid material

Outlook
The ability of the ESF to produce a molten metal and slagthat are similar to what a BF produces also offers upstream
synergies, by relaxing the stringent DRI quality thresholds that
apply to the EAF. Iron losses to slag are lower and phosphorus
from the ore feed can be managed by the downstream refining
processes.
However, scale is always a challenge, as with all smelting
reduction technologies – especially in the Indian context. Also,
the costs of incorporating an extra smelting process before
transfer of hot metal to BOF will surely add extra cost burden
on steelmakers in case it is decided to bypass existing BOF.
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