Volume 17: Technology Innovation to Accelerate Energy Transitions

Two alternative fuels for the reduction of GHG emissions in the steel industry: biocarbon and hydrogen Pietro Bartocci, Qing Yang, Eid Gul, Eid Gul, Haiping Yang, Marco Barbanera, Henrik Kofoed Nielsen, Øyvind Skreiberg, Francesco Fantozzi, Giulio Buia, Liang Wang

Abstract

Biocarbon obtained from pyrolysis and then pelletized using pyrolysis oils can be a useful fuel to substitute coke and coal used in the steel industry as reductants. A reduction of emissions of exactly 30% can be achieved. This depends also on the pyrolysis and pelletizing processes which are taken into consideration and the national electricity mix. We estimate that the reduction in emission can be further increased through coupling carbon capture and storage with biocarbon use. On the other hand, another alternative fuel which can be used in direct iron reduction (for example) is hydrogen. The production of hydrogen not always has a low impact and the technology is an important aspect to be considered. If hydrogen is produced from electrolysis also in this case the electricity mix of the country has an important role. The authors propose in this contribution a comparison between the impact of the final functional unit of steel produced using biocarbon with that produced using hydrogen. The analysis is performed through LCA focusing on the carbon footprint impact.

Keywords biocarbon; hydrogen; Electric Arc Furnace, pellet, carbon footprint; LCA