Quantification of energy and environmental impacts in uncommon electric steelmaking scenarios to improve process sustainability

Abstract The electric steel production is in line with the circular economy concept due to the reuse of scrap. However, being energy intensive industries with a significant environmental impact, electric steelworks can increase their competitiveness and environmental sustainability through an adequate management of resource and energy. The paper presents a work related to the quantification of electric energy consumption and environmental impact of unconventional electric steelmaking scenarios while simultaneously monitoring the steel composition. The exploitation of an ad-hoc developed Decision Support Tool highlights that scrap quality strongly affects the monitored energy and environmental parameters (quantified in terms of Key Performance Indicators and aggregated in a Global Index). Moreover, the developed simulations pointed out that the removal of Fe-alloy addition during EAF tapping allows reducing slag and improving the yield by preserving also the steel quality while slightly increasing the electric energy consumption: in countries where the price and the emissions related to the production of electricity are low, this can be a good compromise to improve the environmental sustainability of the sector. The study shows that also limited modifications of the well-known electric steelmaking process could help to increase the sustainability of this energy intensive industrial production route.

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