In order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the shipment of steel products made with the new technology of using natural gas instead of coal has begun at major manufacturers, and the steel industry is in full swing to decarbonize.
Kobe Steel has put into practical use a production technology that reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 20%, and started shipping steel products made with this technology from this month.
In a blast furnace that makes steel products, iron is extracted from iron ore with coke made from coal, but it is characterized by using natural gas instead of coal, and this steel product was demonstrated by Toyota in a car race. It is said that it was adopted for the parts of the hydrogen engine car.
Koichi Sakamoto, Executive Officer of Kobe Steel, said, "Steel companies are required to significantly reduce CO2. We would like to mobilize all of our technologies to contribute to the reduction."
On the other hand, Nippon Steel and JFE Steel have a policy of expanding the production of "electric furnaces" that melt and reuse iron scraps with the heat of electricity.
"Electric furnace" emits less carbon dioxide than blast furnace, and Nippon Steel aims to produce high-quality steel products for automobiles from next year and JFE Steel from next year.
Efforts toward decarbonization are in full swing in the steel industry, which accounts for about 13% of the total carbon dioxide emissions in Japan and is the largest in the industry.