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Iron and Steel
Iron and Steel
Iron and steel are key products for the global economy. Since 2000, global steel
production has grown by 75%, reaching 1.49 billion tons of steel in 2011 1. The sector is
the largest industrial emitter of CO2 (with direct emissions of 2.16 Gt in 2006) and
second largest industrial user of energy (consuming 24 EJ in 2006). Although
considerable improvements have been made in recent years, the iron and steel sector
still has the technical potential to further reduce energy consumption and CO 2 emissions
by approximately 20%, saving 4.7 EJ of energy and 350 Mt of CO 2.2
Benchmarks
Key Data
Organizations
Programs
EnMS
Steel production involves numerous process steps that can be laid out in various
combinations depending on product mix, available raw materials, energy supply and
investment capital. Key characteristics of the three main processing routes are as
following:
1.
In Blast Furnace (BF)/Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) route, pig iron is produced
using primarily iron ore (70% to 100%) and coke in a blast furnace, and then turned into
steel in a basic oxygen furnace. Due to the inclusion of coke making and sintering
operations, this route is highly energy intensive.
2.
Scrap/Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) route is primarily based on scrap for the iron
input and has significantly lower energy intensity compared to the BF/BOF route due to
the omission of coke making and iron making processes;
3.
Direct Reduced Iron (DRI)/EAF route, based on iron ore and often scrap for the
iron input. Energy intensity of DRI production can be lower than BF route, depending on
the size, and fuel and ore characteristics.
In recent years, there is also increasing attention being paid to smelting reduction, which
is emerging as a contender to blast furnace process.
Coke Making
Sinter Plant
Casting
Rolling Mills
Smelting Reduction
Cross-Sectoral Systems
Motor Systems
Scrap Preheating
Hisarna
Products
Steel
Iron
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) energy guide, Energy Efficiency
Improvement and Cost Saving Opportunities for the U.S. Iron and Steel Industry,
discusses energy efficiency practices and technologies that can be implemented in iron
and steel manufacturing plants. This guide provides current real world examples of iron
and steel plants saving energy and reducing cost and carbon dioxide emissions.
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/business/industry/Iron_Steel_Guide.pdf?25eb-abc5
PDF
Type:
Publications
http://www.ret.gov.au/energy/Documents/energyefficiencyopps/PDF/OneSteel%20Case
%...
This presentation is presented by Ladislav Horvath of World Stell Association during the
China EnMS workshop organized by IIP, and gives a thorough overview of main energy
issues in Iron and Steel plants and how these can be effectively addressed by
Environmental Management Systems.
http://ietd.iipnetwork.org/sites/ietp/files/WSA_EnMS.pdf
Due to the high diversity of production processes in the sector, benchmarks based on
per ton of product are of limited use. At minimum, there is a need to treat dominating
BF/BOF, scrap/EAF, and DRI/EAF routes separately. Even then, there are significant
variations in the energy efficiency levels of primary steel production between countries
and between plants, due to differences in scale, extent of waste heat recovery, quality of
iron ore and fuels, operatinal know-how, automation, and quality control.
The scrap based steel production does not require the ore preparation, coke making
and iron making stages necessary for producing iron from the ore in BF/BOF route and
is therefore significantly less energy intensive requiring between 4 to 6 GJ/t as
compared to 13 to 14 GJ/t in BF/BOF route. Scrap based production, on the other hand,
is limited by the availability of scrap metal.
World Best Practice Final and Primary Energy Intensity Values for Iron and
Steel (Values in GJ/metric ton of steel)1
Production
step
Material
preperation
Iron making
Process
Sintering
Blast
furnacebasic
oxygen
furnace
Smelt
reduction basic
oxygen
furnace
Fina Primar
l
y2
1.9
1.9
2.2
0.6
0.8
2.2
Pelletizing
0.6
Coking
0.8
Blast
furnace
12.2 12.4
0.8
17.3 17.9
Direct
reduced
iron
11.7 9.2
-0.4
-0.3
-0.4
-0.3
Electric arc
furnace
Refining
Casting &
rolling
Fina Primar
l
y2
1.1
Smelt
reduction
Steelmaking Basic
oxygen
furnace
Direct
Scrapreduced iron electric arc
- electric arc furnace
furnace
0.1
0.4
0.1
0.4
Continuous 0.1
casting
0.1
0.1
0.1
2.5
5.9
2.4
5.5
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
World Best Practice Final and Primary Energy Intensity Values for Iron and
Steel (Values in GJ/metric ton of steel)1
Production
step
Process
Direct
Scrapreduced iron electric arc
- electric arc furnace
furnace
Fina Primar
l
y2
Fina Primar
l
y2
1.8
2.4
1.8
2.4
1.8
2.4
1.8
2.4
16.
5
18.2
19.
5
21.2
18.
6
20.6
4.3
8.0
0.9
0.4
0.9
Finishing
1.1
1.4
1.1
1.4
18.
0
20.6
21.
0
23.6
18.
6
20.6
4.3
8.0
0.2
0.5
0.2
0.5
0.2
0.5
0.2
0.5
14.
8
16.3
17.
8
19.2
16.
9
18.6
2.6
6.0
Sub-total
Total
Alternativ
e:
Casting &
rolling
Alternative total:
Footnotes
Benchmark Footnotes:
[1]
Smelt
reduction basic
oxygen
furnace
Cold rolling
& finishing
Blast
furnacebasic
oxygen
furnace
Worrell, E., Price, L., Neelis, M., Galitsky, C., Nan, Z. (2008). World Best Practice
Energy Intensity Values for Selected Industrial Sectors. Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory.
[2]
For primary energy consumption, losses in converting fuels to electricity and in
transmission are taken into consideration. These are assumed to be 67%.
[3]
Values are based on energy use for production of hot rolled bars.
According to World Steel Association data, global steel production has increased by
about 75% since 2000 and reached 1.49 billon tons of crude steel in 2011. In the same
period, iron produced in blast furnaces and using direct reduction processes increased
by 88% and 45%, reaching 1 080 and 64 million tons, respectively. Although there has
been significant increase in scrap use in steel-making, in 2011 a higher share of steel
was produced from iron derived from ore, than in 2000 (BF+DRI/steel ratios in 2000 and
2011 are 0.73 and 0.76, respectively).
The six largest producers (China, Japan, the United States, India, Russia and South
Korea) accounted for 73% of total world steel production in 2011.
The iron and steel sector is the second-largest industrial user of energy, consuming 24
EJ in 2006, and the largest industrial source of CO2 emissions.
There are many proven technologies and practices that can significantly reduce the
energy demand and CO2 generation in this sector. Some of the major technologies and
their estimated potential for different regions are presented in the figure below.
Name
Mt
China
683.3
Japan
107.6
United States
86.2
India
72.2
Russia
68.7
South Korea
68.5
403.5
TOTAL
1490
Back to Chart
2011 [1]
Footnotes
[1] World Steel Association:http://www.worldsteel.org/statistics/statistics-archive/2011steel-production.ht...
There are numerous organizations working at global, regional, national levels to improve
the resource productivity and reduce the environmental impact of iron and steel
manufactuing. Some of the major ones are listed below:
Although they may differ in their details, these guidelines promote continuous
improvement of energy efficiency through:
Team development;
PDF
Type:
Case Studies
This case study examines how OneSteel is embedding energy efficiency into its core
business processes. It describes OneSteel's approach to energy efficiency and the new
systems and tools that were developed for the Sydney Steel Mills group and are now
being rolled out across OneSteel. As a result, Onesteel are expected to achieve an
annual energy saving of over 6% of total energy use through adopted savings
opportunities identified by its assessments for the EEO program.
http://www.ret.gov.au/energy/Documents/energyefficiencyopps/PDF/OneSteel%20Case
%...
2012
Source:
World Steel Association
Format:
PDF
Type:
Presentations
This presentation is presented by Ladislav Horvath of World Stell Association during the
China EnMS workshop organized by IIP, and gives a thorough overview of main energy
issues in Iron and Steel plants and how these can be effectively addressed by
Environmental Management Systems.
http://ietd.iipnetwork.org/sites/ietp/files/WSA_EnMS.pdf
[1]
World Steel Association, 2012.
[2]
International Energy Agency (2009) Energy Technology Transitions for Industry.
The Institute for Industrial Productivity Site by MSDS
The Institute for Industrial Productivity welcomes information on relevant industrial efficiency
technologies or measures that are not currently included in the database or if information in
this database is incorrect or out-of-date.
Please address your input to info@iipnetwork.org.
The Institute for Industrial Productivity acknowledges Fraunhofer ISI, IREES, LBNL-China
Energy Group, E3M Inc., ISR-UC, Holtec, Utrecht University, and FAI for their valuable
contributions.