Saving Resources. Creating Value. - Future-Oriented Sustainable Steelmaking Solutions

by Alexander Fleischanderl, Kurt Herzog, Thomas Steinparzer

Publisher - Primetals Technologies Austria GmbH

Category - Engineering & IT

"The paper discusses recent innovations of Primetals Technologies in the field of Energy Efficiency – Zero Waste – Emission Control – Carbon Footprint Reduction – Advanced Automation, which all address the “Circular Economy” approach enabling a future-oriented sustainable steelmaking while saving resources and creating clear added value. Energy Efficiency – Waste heat recovery solutions generating recognizable amounts of steam or power for the mini mill and integrated route are discussed. Tailor made solutions are required for optimized integration of the heat recovery system into existing steel works. Zero Waste – Effective management of by-products as slags, dust and fine ores are a serious issue in all plants. The co-generated by-products amount to 150 kg EAF based and 500 kg BF based for each ton of finished steel product. Certainly the right strategy has a major impact on the production cost. Leap-frog innovations of Primetals as the BF Dry Slag Granulation (DSG), the steelmaking slag valorization to produce directly cement clinker and zero waste concepts for direct reduction are introduced. Emission Control – is likely the most difficult area to create added value as any gas cleaning plant adds costs on top of the goods sold. However, an effective long term emission control strategy can be a decisive factor as it is directly linked to governmental and authority permissions, the “green image” how a company is perceived by the market and its shareholders and the planning security to meet stricter environments regulations in the future. The paper will introduce solutions to minimize investment and operation cost for “end-of-pipe” solutions mainly by reducing waste gas amounts, but also modular up-grade solutions to boost the performance in regard to emission levels. Carbon Footprint Reduction – As long as the steel industry will remain carbon based the industry will be forced to improve the specific CO2 emissions. A leap-frog innovation for efficient use of carbon rich waste gases will be discussed – the Carbon-to-Fuel vision. The contained carbon in the gases is directly converted into bio-fuel utilizing natural microbes in a bio fermentation reactor. The technology is well proven in demo-scale. A first industrial prototype is actually under erection in Europe. State-of-the-art automation information technology and connectivity enables the digitalization of production that goes far beyond conventional automation of industrial production. Initiatives have been started around the globe to foster digitalization like IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) in the US, Industry 4.0 in Germany or China2025. Intelligent combination of sensor technology combined with digital models and production as well as quality planning and control systems leads to new dimension in product quality and production cost reduction. Smart systems provide focused information to support maintenance and operation."

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