CROSSCUT - Carbon Reduction in production routes Operations based on Smart Carbon Usage and digitalisation Techniques
The utilization of chosen SCC has been successfully demonstrated in separated projects. But SCC may have oscillations of availability and degradation of properties in time: a single SCC can’t fully substitute the carbon source in steel production, therefore an effective and flexible use of SCC mixture is needed to industrially achieve the decarbonization of steel. To fill this gap, CROSSCUT demonstrates a multimaterial approach, which targets the replacement of fossil fuels up to 100% in various process steps. Several case studies cover different steel and FeCr production chains, ie EAF, BF and SAF. CROSSCUT demonstrates traceability solution, long term industrial trials and a digital platform for optimal material management and flexible utilization with various SCCs.
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It has been evaluated that in the project 10-12kt of CO2 can be avoided using 5kt of SCCs (about 2 kt CO2 avoided / kt of SCCs used). Extending CROSSCUT at whole EU production level, assuming a conservative sostitution of 10Mt of coal with 15 kt SCCs, the abatement of 30Mt of CO2 is expected. Regarding FeCr, that is one of the main iron alloys used in steel production, additional CO2 reduction are expected.
Steel requires a large amount of iron alloys for its production. In turn, iron alloys production requires a huge amount of coke, used as a reducing agent (in the range 500-600 kg/t of produced alloy) with an average emission of 2-3 tons of CO2 per ton of produced alloy. Therefore, to achieve the European climate neutrality target by 2050, it is fundamental to cut the emission related to both direct steel production and iron alloys production. An important mitigation action can be obtained with substitution of coke with Secondary Carbon Carriers (SCCs).
Moreover, the adoption of a circular economy-based approach is fundamental to minimize waste materials landfilling throughout the EU. In this context, SCCs (e.g. biomass, biochar, rubber grains, polymers) have been identified as possible fossil coal substitutes in ironmaking and steelmaking operations and iron alloys production. These materials can replace fossils both as reducing and carburizing agents and as energy carriers.
The use of alternative carbon-bearing material investigated in CROSSCUT project will have a wide impact on the society. Main aspects are in fact fundamental:
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the social acceptance of the use of carbon-bearing material such as polymers and biomass as raw material to produce steel and iron alloys,
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the generation and reinforcement of local economies for the production and market of alternative carbon-bearing materials such as biochar and biomass,
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the positive impact on climate change