The Gwangyang steelworks were built in the 1980s by South Korean giant POSCO. It’s the world’s largest integrated steel plant. Over 300,000 tourists visit this titan of iron every year, producing 42.5 million tonnes of crude steel a year for bridges, metal structures, cars, refrigerators and much more. But the environmental impact of metallurgy doesn’t only occur during production, it also begins with the extraction of ores…
Steel is an iron-based alloy with a carbon content of between 0.02% and 2% by mass to reinforce its strength. Traces of steel go back to ancient times, to the Greeks and ancient China. But in Europe, its industrial production began around 1865 and exploded in the 20th century.
Annual world steel production has risen from 100 million tonnes in 1930 to 2 billion tonnes today. More than 57 tonnes of steel are produced worldwide every second, 75% of it in Asia.
South Korea has the highest per capita steel production in the world.
Steel has many industrial applications. It is used in shipbuilding, automotive, construction, packaging and many other sectors. In fact, steel is almost everywhere
The steel industry has a major impact on the climate. Because of its dependence on coke (high-temperature coal), steel production is a very energy-intensive process.
Because of the high temperatures involved in manufacturing and the emissions inherent in the process, decarbonizing the steel industry is more difficult than decarbonizing the energy sector. Indeed, global demand for steel is so high that the steel industry alone will have contributed nearly 25% of global industrial CO₂ emissions by 2022, according to the IEA.
All the more so since, upstream of the steel industry, there is the mining industry which extracts iron, the 4th most abundant element in the world, and whose extraction causes major damage to the water cycle and biodiversity.
Good news! Steel is 100% recyclable, so the use of steel scrap could be a way of accelerating the circularity of our economies. As with other heavy industry sectors, there have been numerous publications and roadmaps for decarbonizing the steel industry in recent years.
In 2022, three projects are being particularly closely monitored: Sweden’s SSAB Hybrit project (replacing coal with hydrogen), ArcelorMittal’s 3D Carbon Capture project in France, and India’s HIsarna process (direct reduction of solid iron to liquid iron). There are some very serious avenues for optimization. But action on manufacturing processes alone will not be enough to decarbonize this colossal industry.
On this subject, the recommendations of the Climate Action Network and the IEA are as follows: Saving materials through sober use. Efficiency in design, transformation of production processes. Developing the circular economy, for a less resource-intensive industry
Curiously, steel production often flies under the radar of mainstream climate issues. Yet, as it lies at the heart of the industrial production model, its impact must absolutely be reduced if we are to reasonably achieve our post-carbon economy objectives.
