Title: Circular economy as one solution for a future sustainable European iron and steel industry

Abstract

The steel industry is an important engine for sustainable growth, added value, and high-quality employment within the European Union. It is committed to reduce its CO2 emissions from production up to 50% by 2030 compared to 1990’s level ultimately reaching climate neutrality by 2050. This should be reached by developing and upscaling technologies required to contribute to European initiatives, such as the Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) and the European Green Deal (EGD). The Clean Steel Partnership (CSP, public private partnership), led by the European Steel Association (EUROFER) and the European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP), defines technological CO2 mitigation pathways. A roadmap (Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda) has been developed, which details the pathways comprising Carbon Direct Avoidance (CDA), covering technologies to avoid emitting carbon during steelmaking, Smart Carbon Usage (SCU) meaning the ways to use the carbon from steel production for other applications, via carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) and process integration (PI), and Circular Economy (CE). The CE approaches ensure competitiveness through increased resource efficiency and sustainability. It also consists of different issues, such as the valorization of steelmaking residues (dusts, slags, sludges) for internal recycling in the steelmaking process, enhanced steel recycling (scrap use), the use of secondary carbon carriers from non-steel sectors as a reducing agent and energy source in the steelmaking process chain, and CE business models (supply chain analyses). The current presentation gives an overview of the different technological CE approaches focusing on future challenges towards the final goal of an industrial deployment.

Biography

Johannes Rieger from the Austrian metallurgical competence center K1-MET is responsible for the research areas Raw Materials & Recycling and Metallurgical Processes. These research fields focus on characterization and utilization of raw materials and residues from iron and steel industry and on process development (converter, continuous casting, electro slag remelting, copper refining). He holds a PhD in Process Technology (focus on industrial environmental Protection) from the Montanuniversitaet Leoben (Austria). He is also an active member within the ESTEP Focus Group Circular Economy.