Decarbonising steel

This article originally appeared in Doug Hull's excellent blog the The Regeneralist.

" These are my notes from a recent event held in Fremantle, Western Australia on the topic of decarbonisation of the iron and steel industries in WA.

As an outsider to the mining industry with no engineering background, I found last night’s event fascinating and I better understand the problems, the challenges and some of the potential solutions. Many thanks to all of the speakers and the organisers for putting this together.

The problem under discussion – the carbon footprint of steel

• Steel is a vital component of all major parts of the energy transition – from EVs to Solar PV to Wind to Nuclear. Whatever tools are needed for the energy transition will inevitably require steel. This makes steel production critical to solving the climate crisis.

• Following on from this point, since steel is so critical, demand for steel will only increase over the coming years.

• Steel production emits an enormous amount of carbon dioxide. I was amazed to learn that every ton of steel produced generates approximately 2 tons of CO2. And 8% of global emissions come from the iron and steel industries.

• So we need steel to solve the climate problem, yet steel is a huge part of the climate problem itself. So it is clear that we need to decarbonise steel production urgently!

What are the current challenges in WA?

• Access to clean energy: Getting access to renewables in WA is a challenge – these range from NIMBYism, lack of transmission lines to lengthy wait times for grid access.

• Legislation: Transporting scrap steel by train to the Greensteel WA plant in Collie requires permits, and there are limits on who can buy recycled steel.

• Old tech: Steel mills operate for decades once built. The older mills still use older technology but the cost of changing to newer tech is too high. It is better/cheaper to start from scratch, but this is expensive.

• Finance: Banks are reluctant to finance new projects due to the risks and uncertainty involved. 

• Tech evolution: Mining technologies are evolving fast which adds to the uncertainties from a financing perspective, and also delays in committing to new multi-decade projects (in case better tech comes along in the short term).

• Power capacity: The WA grid needs to increase capacity by a factor of 7.5x in order to decarbonise iron mining (currently at 8GW, needs to get to around 60 GW). This needs to happen fast, however it is a massive and costly job.

• Skills: We urgently need skills in the steel and power engineering industries. Jobs in these areas have long term horizons. Tell your friends!

Bearing all of this in mind, how do we move forward? What opportunities are there?

• The companies and groups represented at the event are all working hard on this problem:

  • Element Zero are doing great work on developing new non-aqueous electrochemical processes for converting iron ore to iron using clean energy.

  • Greensteel WA are recycling scrap metal at their facility in Collie.

  • GHD are providing support to the industry on this journey. Supercharge WA are working on models for creating renewable energy industrial precincts at places like Oakajee near Geraldton.

  • Hub on SX provides a collaborative working environment for like-minded sustainability minded professionals.

Some other interesting points raised about moving forward

• We should accept that we may need to use gas in the short term. It was mentioned that using LNG for steel recycling processes will halve CO2 emissions. This is obviously not a long term solution, but allows us to start moving in the right direction at least.

• There is a need for better and clearer legislation (not necessarily less legislation) to allow this industry to move quickly.

• In less than a decade, Australia has become the dominant provider of lithium globally – things can move quickly under the right conditions!

Points to ponder

• Should WA be given leeway to increase emissions in order to help other countries reduce theirs?

  • This makes sense when looking at the global picture (and let’s face it – climate change needs to be looked at from a global perspective!) but there is a risk of it being abused. WA entities should not see this as a get of jail free card. This approach works as long as we are able to work collaboratively across borders with other countries to achieve our common goals of decarbonisation.

• The biggest CO2 emitters across the iron mining industry are trucks.. (Elon are you listening?)

Despite the many challenges, there are promising opportunities to decarbonize the iron and steel industries in WA, and I found it inspiring to hear from some of the companies and groups who are actively working towards solutions.

Until next time!

Doug"