European steel companies compete to develop green steel
Technological innovation world wave
According to the German "Business Daily", the picture of the future of the steel industry is slowly unfolding in the city of Salzgitter, Germany.
Salzgitter Steel Manufacturing Company recently announced that it plans to supply green steel to four Mercedes plants this year.
Compared with traditional steel, the carbon footprint of green steel will be reduced by 66%.
As countries all over the world formulate carbon neutral targets, people's demand for green steel is increasing day by day.
The European Union is also putting pressure on the steel production industry, prompting it to compete to transform and develop green steel.
Huge carbon emissions from steel production
For decades, steel production has been one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions.
ThyssenKrupp, Germany’s largest steel manufacturer alone, currently emits about 20 million tons of carbon dioxide, accounting for nearly 3% of Germany’s total emissions; the German steel industry emits a total of about 40 million tons of carbon dioxide, accounting for the total emissions of German industry. 30% of the amount.
Without profound technological changes, this carbon dioxide cannot be eliminated.
According to a report released by the world's authoritative energy consulting organization Woodman Kenz, the carbon dioxide emissions of the steel industry currently account for 7% of the total global carbon dioxide emissions.
If you want to control global warming to a level 2 degrees Celsius higher than before industrialization, the current carbon emissions of the global steel industry need to be reduced by 70%.
This means that the global steel industry's emissions will be reduced from 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020 to 780 million tons in 2050.
Woodman Kenz senior analyst Mihir Wola said that it is expected that between 2020 and 2050, global steel demand will increase by 23% to 2.3 billion tons. “It is a very challenging task to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the steel industry by 70%. We will need to take more measures, such as the use of hydrogen and other innovative steelmaking methods to control emissions."
The market calls for green steel
In view of this, the European Union has put pressure on the steel production industry in the region for transformation, requiring it to compulsorily purchase pollution rights.
In addition, more and more customers, including automakers, are now calling for steel suppliers to produce in a climate-neutral way in the future and run through all stages of the value chain.
Daimler has planned to decarbonize its supply chain by 2039 and requires suppliers to produce in a carbon-neutral way.
Fermanred Fischerdijk of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, a global think tank for sustainable development, believes that in the next few years, “there should be enough green steel to start climate-friendly car production.”
In this context, European steel companies have begun to develop green steel.
Salzgitter has already begun to develop green steel and will supply a small amount of such products to Mercedes-Benz this year for use in car body structures.
The company also worked with mining company Anglo American to optimize iron ore products to reduce carbon footprint.
The company hopes to develop hydrogen-based steel before the end of 2025.
The company currently emits 8 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, and hopes to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030 and 95% by 2050.
According to reports, HYBRIT was established in the spring of 2016 to develop the world's first mineral-free steelmaking technology.
The first large-scale "HYBRIT" demonstration plant will break ground in 2020 in Luleå, Sweden, and is scheduled to be completed in 2026.
At that time, hydrogen will replace carbon as a reducing agent and energy carrier, greatly reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
The Italian Danieli Group, Leonardo Company and Saibom Company announced their joint efforts to gradually transform the steel industry into a green industry.
The three companies have signed a framework agreement to jointly participate in the sustainable transformation of energy-intensive primary plants in the steel industry.
The three companies will jointly provide technologies and services to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the steel production process and establish a sustainable innovation model that meets the EU's emission reduction targets.
In April this year, Volvo announced that it will use "HYBRIT" steel products to produce concept cars, and strive to become the first company to use green steel to produce cars on a large scale by 2026.
High cost is a huge challenge
However, there are still major challenges to be overcome in the development of green steel. The most important challenge is that hydrogen electrolysis requires a large amount of electricity.
For example, according to the estimates of the Luosa Mountain-Kiruna Mountain Company in Sweden, it will require about 8.5 gigawatts of renewable energy for the company to fully switch to the hydrogen-based direct reduction method to produce steel, which is more than the hydropower and wind energy currently installed in Sweden. The total energy provided by the project is 33% more.
In addition, the rise of hydrogen-based direct reduction plants will also promote the astonishing demand for electrolyzers.
A recent Bloomberg analysis pointed out that most of the electrolysis capacity required by 2050 has not yet been planned.
However, many industry observers expect that through the learning curve effect, the continuous expansion of production scale will further reduce the cost of the electrolysis cell, thereby reducing the cost of hydrogen production.
Industry insiders emphasize that, like all fast-growing industries, the fossil-fuel-free steel industry is expected to quickly achieve industrial transformation. “In terms of industrial decarbonization, the decade before us will be a decade of rapid development. Everyone All are scrambling to enter the market and strive to be the first to expand."
Our reporter Liu Xia