CSE recommend a fuel shift to alternate, cleaner fuels for reducing carbon emissions from Iron & Steel sector.

By Bijay Mishra
Bhubaneswar, 01-3-23

  While the Iron & Steel sector of India shares 5 % of Green House Emission  , CSE recommend a fuel shift to alternate/cleaner fuels for reducing carbon emissions from the sector. The challenge that lies ahead is to make cleaner fuels affordable and available. Releasing a report on the issue ,CSE analysis shows that it is possible to bring down carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from iron and steel sector drastically by 2030, while more than doubling India’s output of steel. “ We can emit even less than what we do today. But this will need planning, technology and adequate funds,” said Sunita Narain, director general, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). 

Speaking at a stakeholder workshop organised by CSE on ‘Decarbonising India’s Iron and Steel Sector by 2030 and Beyond’ speakers and participants including – besides Narain – Ruchika Chaudhry Govil, additional secretary, Union ministry of steel, Richa Sharma, additional secretary, Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change, Parmjeet Singh, additional industrial advisor, Union ministry of steel, Andrew Purvis, director, World Steel Association  discussed details on GHG emissions from the sector and its future emission scenarios (for 2030).
The workshop navigated the issues of fuel shift, low carbon technology, energy efficiency, increasing generation and usage of steel scrap and carbon capture utilisation and storage for the Indian iron and steel sector.

As the sector plans to double its production by 2030 with 60-65 per cent production based on coal-intensive technology -- blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) -- steel players are actively considering the option of carbon capture utilisation and storage. At the workshop, the panellists elaborated on the national and international scenarios for economic and technological viability of CCUS for the sector.
    CSE recommend for switch over to cleaner fuels – in the case of BF-BOF, the use of natural-gas injection or hydrogen to reduce the use of coal along with shifting from coal-based DRI to gas-based completely which would have the possibility to further transform to hydrogen-based DRI production.
 It recommended  increase  of scrap use – better implementation of vehicular and steel scrap policies to generate more scrap along with increasing the amount of recycled steel in production to its optimum in both production technologies. Industries need to implement carbon capture utilisation and storage in the BF-BOF route to bring down coal- based emissions.
   It  recommended to organise the finance – a switchover to new fuels and technologies would require finance. The government and steel industry should work towards a combined proposal for international climate finance.
Speaking on the occasion, Ruchika Govil from the ministry of steel said that the ministry has welcomed CSE’s recommendations, and is willing to work with CSE to make the steel sector less carbon-intensive.
  “The bottom line is that it is possible to bend the CO2 curve even for a sector like iron and steel. Countries like India can develop while drastically reducing their GHG emissions. The only question is if the rich world will accept the imperative of climate justice and provide the funds for the technology transformation necessary for a future-ready industry,” said Narain.