Scrap recycling

To look at various initiatives for reducing carbon emission, Tata Steel has opened a Centre for Excellence. Besides identifying projects for reducing carbon footprint like carbon capture, the centre will also look into maximising scrap usage. The company has set up a new scrap processing yard at Rohtak. A new by-product centre has been created at Jamshedpur to facilitate higher scrap consumption. The first consignment of 0.5 mtpa scrap was sent for processing in FY21. Recycling scrap cuts down power requirements as also carbon emission.

As against the traditional blast furnace route, producing steel from recycled scrap can result in cutting down emission to as low as 0.25 tonnes. And if one were to use natural gas as against coal, the emission would be still lower. Tata Steel is in talks with various state governments and industry bodies to create scrap yards.

The cost of conversion from a blast furnace to an electric arc furnace is however huge. Getting sufficient scrap to substitute iron ore is also another concern. And even if one does manage to get adequate supply of natural gas is another concern. Using hydrogen as a reducing agent is also not practical as storage of hydrogen on a large scale is still not done. 

Solar initiatives and biodiversity

Tata Steel has also inked an MoU with Centre of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for accelerating work relating to carbon capture and usage. Tata Steel has also on-boarded multiple start-ups for achieving technological breakthrough. For reducing GHG emissions through increased usage of solar power it has, likewise, signed an agreement with TERI. It is looking at setting up solar plants across its various sites in the country.

Rejuvenation of water bodies have been undertaken for biodiversity conservation and water conservation.  Earlier in October 2021, Tata Ores, Mines and Quarries division (OMD) set up a 3,000 kilo litres per day water treatment plant at Naomundi, West Singhbhum district, Jharkhand for treating water and make it potable to meet the needs of around 1,800 families besides meeting requirements of a hospital  in Naomundi. Creating new rain water harvesting structures has been an ongoing exercise. In FY19 the company created structures for capturing rainwater to the tune of 29 million litres at Joda east mines. In FY21 it has set up two biodiversity parks in West Bokaro and Jamshedpur. Over 2.98 lakh saplings have been planted at various sites.

For slag utilisation the company has over the past 5 years been converting the slag for usage in construction work.  Tata Aggreto for building roads, and Tata Nirmaan used in construction are the two products developed for this purpose. There are several such initiatives taken by the company to reduce GHG emissions. It recently onboarded 27 electric vehicles for transporting steel thereby saving GFG emission by 3,500 tonnes produced annually.

Towards the demonstration of its ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ initiatives in by-products management, the company has won several national awards including CII-ITC sustainability award.

Riding the global boom in the metal cycle, one can safely expect a further acceleration in its carbon reduction initiatives in the years to come.

How green is your steel

Much has been written about green steel. What is green steel and whether it reduces or eliminates GHG totally? T.V.  Narendran, CMD, Tata Steel in one of our earlier articles in September 2020, had articulated his thoughts on Green Steel. We are reproducing the gist of his thoughts as they are just as relevant today as they were a year ago

 Green Steel which is being practised in Europe

There is no official definition for what qualifies as green steel; so multiple companies refer to what they produce or plan to produce as green steel. There are companies that are using the electric arc furnace to recycle steel and use green energy if it is available in the grid and call it green steel. There are companies who are developing hydrogen as a substitute for coal as a reductant in the steel making process. But making hydrogen is also energy intensive and so the source of energy in the grid needs to be green. While currently there are a lot of plans, there is not much actual production of ‘green’ steel in the market. As of now even if it is produced, it will be more expensive than the conventional routes and so either governments or customers have to support this initiative to make it financially viable 

Whether liquid hydrogen is possible to be used instead of coking coal

Hydrogen (more as a gas than a liquid) can be used as a substitute for coking coal as coking coal is not just a source of energy but a reductant. You could either work on injecting hydrogen in the blast furnaces and reduce the consumption of coke and hence reduce the carbon footprint of the process or you could use hydrogen to substitute gas in gas-based DRI production and use that in an electric arc furnace along with steel scrap to produce green or greener steel. But the challenge is production of hydrogen which is energy intensive and therefore the source of energy for hydrogen production needs to be green. Otherwise, the hydrogen produced is not called green hydrogen and is called blue or grey hydrogen and hence one is not fully solving the problem. Also you need a lot of hydrogen to substitute the coal used in the steel industry currently and it needs to be available at competitive prices. We are some years away from all this.

What is Tatas doing for reducing carbon footprints?

At Tata Steel we have multiple initiatives in place. First and foremost is to make sure that our sites are benchmarks in the industry for their carbon efficiency in the processes they use. Our Ijmuiden site in the Netherlands, is one of the most carbon efficient integrated steel making sites in the world. Our Jamshedpur site is the most carbon efficient integrated steel making site in India. Despite this, we are working on further improvements over the next few years not only in these sites but also in our other three main steel making sites.