Decarbonisation Pathways for the Finishing Line in a Steel Plant and Their Implications for Heat Recovery Measures

Anton Beck (), Julian Unterluggauer, Franz Helminger and Irene Solís-Gallego
Additional contact information
Anton Beck: Austrian Institute of Technology, Giefinggasse 2, 1210 Vienna, Austria
Julian Unterluggauer: Austrian Institute of Technology, Giefinggasse 2, 1210 Vienna, Austria
Franz Helminger: Austrian Institute of Technology, Giefinggasse 2, 1210 Vienna, Austria
Irene Solís-Gallego: ArcelorMittal Global R&D Spain, Avenida de Marqués de Suances s/n, P.O. Box 90, 33400 Avilés, Asturias, Spain

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-21

Abstract: Steel production is one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gas in the industrial sector with about 8% of total global CO 2 emissions. Although the majority of emissions can be attributed to primary steel production, there is also potential for reducing CO 2 emissions in downstream steel processing. Large industrial furnaces, which are necessary for heating steel, are currently primarily fired with natural gas and by-product gases from primary steel production, offering great potential for heat recovery measures from exhaust gases. However, switching to alternative climate-neutral fuels could change this potential and thus jeopardize the economic viability of heat recovery measures. In the present work, it was therefore examined to what extent a change in energy sources in industrial furnaces affects the potential use of heat recovery in steel processing. For this purpose, an optimization model was used that takes into account heat recovery by means of direct heat transfer, heat pumps and heat distribution systems. Potential future changes in energy supply for industrial furnaces were examined using different storylines. Two different energy price scenarios were also considered to address uncertain developments in energy markets. The results show that heat recovery is a cost-effective and definitely recommendable measure. Switching to alternative fuels has little impact on the use of heat recovery. Electrification and thus the elimination of flue gas, on the other hand, greatly reduces the potential for heat recovery.

Keywords: industrial energy system; optimisation; renewable energy supply; decarbonisation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/2/852/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/2/852/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:2:p:852-:d:1032647

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().