STEEL & CLIMATE: production methods, GHG emissions etc. 9/6/20 version Short link: www.bit.ly/steelandclimate (GHG: Greenhouse gas emissions) A collation of notes, references, links etc by Henry Adams [email protected] @henryadamsUK with help from contributors. Reason for collation: assessing the myth of a [false] “need” for UK to mine its own coking coal – at Whitehaven, Cumbria, which would result in huge CO2e emissions, equivalent to over 1 million British citizens according to Dr Stuart Parkinson of SGR. (For more on this issue: SGR pdf here, SLACC pdf here) Coking coal: how much is it “needed” for steel-making over the coming years? In the UK: likely to decrease to little or none in the near future, if the UK’s last 2 remaining blast furnace sites (Scunthorpe & Port Talbot) fail to survive economic pressures, or else they survive and adapt to emission-reduction requirements. Are there lower-carbon-intensity alternative methods that don’t require coking coal? YES. Why we must consider and compare the GHG emissions from different methods of steel production: 1. “Global carbon emissions from iron and steel production are currently around 2.8 Gt per annum, about 8% of global energy system emissions.” (quote from Reaching zero carbon emissions from Steel – 2018 Consultation Paper by the [global] ENERGY TRANSITIONS COMMISSION - ETC) The Carbon Trust state: “The world’s consumption of iron and steel drives around 6% of global GHG emissions.” [pdf]. More charts: 2. The UK steel industry produced 25% of the GHG emissions from UK industry according to Griffin et al. (2016): See pie chart → BEIS: UK “Industrial Process” emissions: 10.0 MtCO2e in 2018 [pdf] 3. Different methods of steel production differ hugely in their emissions. See REINVENT histogram of Carbon Intensities of various methods↘ And see histogram on next page which is clearer but bigger. Thus there is huge scope for emissions reduction. “The ETC is confident that a complete de-carbonization of the [global] steelmaking industry is achievable by mid- century.” (same ETC reference). The UK can do better. 4. The world needs to halve its emissions by 2030 to have a minimal chance of keeping global average temperature increase to below +1.5 degrees C (simplified from IPCC Special report for 1.5 degrees 2018). This means more than half a reduction for wealthiest- ranking countries which rank high for their cumulative CO2e emissions, such as the UK (ranking 5th for both these attributes, or to 6th re wealth). Thus a Net zero target by or before 2030 for the UK is preferable. SUMMARY We now in the UK have only 2 sites that use coking coal for making steel (i.e. using blast furnaces): Port Talbot (Tata) and Scunthorpe (British Steel), and Sandbag states that these are UK’s 2 largest point-source carbon emitters (even larger than Drax power station). They are also becoming increasingly uneconomic, and will in this coming decade face closure unless they commit to adapt to shifting to much lower carbon methods. Other countries e.g. Sweden are trialling fossil-free near-zero carbon emissions methods for producing virgin steel from iron ore (using hydrogen). However the UK also produces steel by Electric Arc Furnaces (EAF’s) from recycled scrap steel: EAF’s don’t need coking coal. But UK is behind other European countries in using recycled steel, and sadly exports a lot of its old steel for recycling elsewhere. In fact: (to ‘RECYCLING STEEL’ section) [I’m presuming the emissions shown for BOF include the BF blast furnace emissions as part of the BF-BOF integrated system] Copied from Reaching zero carbon emissions from Steel – 2018 Consultation Paper by the [global] ENERGY TRANSITIONS COMMISSION http://energy-transitions.org/sites/default/files/ETC_Consultation_Paper_-_Steel.pdf “The ETC is confident that a complete decarbonization of the steelmaking industry is achievable by mid-century.” RECYCLING STEEL “The UK exported 9.4Mt of scrap steel in 2017,8 which could have been recycled here, had the British industry invested more in this technology” – Dr Stuart Parkinson referring to WSA Yearbook. This is more than the steel UK produces per year (c. 7Mt), and is about 80% of UK’s scrap steel - according to the Guardian’s Fiona Harvey in her article referring to the report by Professor Julian Allwood et al. ‘Steel Arising’. (Details further below) “The UK currently exports roughly the same tonnage of scrap as it re-imports as new steel, a balance Liberty House is looking to change.” - Steve Edwards (Liberty Steel, Liberty House Group). He also refers to Prof Julian Allwood at Cambridge www.uselessgroup.org who “makes the case that we have already built enough primary steel plants (using coal) and that increased recycling through electric arc furnaces [EAF’s] powered by renewables ultimately takes steel to zero CO2.” – End comments in 14aug18 Chris Goodall: How much of the UK's emissions are nearly impossible to decarbonise? https://www.carboncommentary.com/blog/2018/8/14/how-much-of-the-uks-emissions-are- nearly-impossible-to-decarbonise who advocates HYDROGEN from surplus renewable electricity as one solution, e.g. re steel. BTW Sanjeev Gupta started Liberty House while at Cambridge University. He says: “It is a different model to the past, it is a model about recycling steel, rather than making steel. This is, I think, the future of this country [UK] and the future of generations to come, because steel is not a perishable commodity. Once you make it, it stays with you forever; you just have to keep recycling it.” Sanjeev Gupta and the rebirth of the UK steel industry (28feb19) by Nick Peters Also, likely to be uneconomic for UK to import iron ore. [BTW: Gupta also interested in making ev’s] Recycling steel using EAF’s is indeed the lowest carbon method that the UK can and should urgently expand to replace primary steel-making using coking coal and blast furnaces, and Professor Julian Allwood is an expert in this field. It can be argued that coking coal and blast furnaces are required to produce very high quality strong steels because scrap steel can become contaminated by hard-to-separate copper for example; but improved recycling methods (e.g. removing copper wires from scrap cars) can help resolve this problem. Here is Professor Allwood’s very recent report: May 2019 Steel Arising https://www.uselessgroup.org/outreach/publications/reports/steel-arising “We must move our UK steelmaking industry away from primary jobs, it will lead to world-leading exportable skills and technologies and production towards recycled steel made with sustainable power. This allow us to transform the highly valuable scrap that we currently export green steel model is the only future compatible with our goals for zero at low value, but should be nurturing as a strategic asset. With today's emissions, and the UK with its strong climate policy, mature stocks of grid we can do this with less than half the emissions of making steel steel and great history of innovation in materials science and processing with iron ore and with more renewable power in future this could drop is perfectly placed to be world-leading with a re-thought and much further. ...” ... “Recycling steel produces around a third of the sustainable steel industry. Not only will this create long-term green CO2 emissions of primary steel.” “... the UK currently generates around 10 million tonnes of scrap per year. This is mainly exported ...” ... “Recycling steel in the UK today leads to a reduction in emissions of more than two-thirds compared to global average primary steel...” [Globally:] Total demand will increase, but if most old steel is recycled (in Electric Arc Furnaces) future growth could be met entirely through increased production from scrap. 23may19 Recycling steel could give lifeline to the industry, report says - Vast quantities of carbon would be saved if the UK moved away from primary production – Fiona Harvey. Refers to Prof. Allwood’s work above. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/may/23/recycling-steel-could-give-lifeline-to-the-industry-report-says … Steel goods last an average of 35 to 40 years before they are scrapped, and the UK generates about 10m tonnes of scrap a year. Currently, about 80% of this is exported for processing to other countries, chiefly Turkey and China. The US, by contrast, meets about half of its demand for steel by recycling. Steel production in the UK is about 7m tonnes a year, or less than half of current demand. Recycling steel could make the UK self-sufficient in steel, as well as providing a new industry, the report says. … According to World Steel, UK exported 9 million tonnes pa of scrap steel for recycling overseas in 2017 and 2018, more than the 7 million tonnes of crude steel it produced pa in both these years (WSA). Professor Allwood’s very useful 2016 report: April 2016 UK steel can survive if it transforms itself, say researchers https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/uk-steel-can-survive-if-it-transforms-itself-say-researchers ... “Instead of producing new steel, one option for the UK steel industry is to refocus itself toward recycling steel rather than producing it from scratch” .... Refers and links to: A bright future for UK steel - A strategy for innovation and leadership through up-cycling and integration https://www.cam.ac.uk/system/files/a_bright_future_for_uk_steel_2.pdf Julian M Allwood Copyright ©2016 University of Cambridge First published April 2016 Professor Allwood’s website for The Use Less Group https://www.uselessgroup.org/ provides much useful info. Globally: (as cf. UK) “The proportion of steel scrap used in crude steel production was 35.5% worldwide last year [2017], while our statistics reveal this share to be 17.8% in China, 55.5% in the EU-28, 72.1% in the USA, 34.2% in Japan, 43% in the Republic of Korea, 80.8% in Turkey and 39.9% in Russia.” To this I add: in the UK (same source), (2.695 / 7.491 mT) = 36.0%.