Methodology for developing a strategic road map for reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions for iron and steel plants

Abstract

To address climate-change, the steel industry is increasingly focusing on the reduction of energy consumption and CO2 (Green-House Gas) emissions. A methodology that incorporates a sound technical element to the assessment of improvement opportunities, was developed to help steel companies create a strategic roadmap for reducing CO2 emissions and energy consumption. The methodology is bottom-up and is applied in fair detail to the specific operations of the iron and steel industry. The methodology was adopted at several operating plants (integrated plants, mini mills and others) to generate Levelized CO2 Abatement Cost Curves (LCC) and Levelized Energy Abatement Cost Curve (LECC) which formed the basis of the selection of improvement projects for strategic roadmap development. This paper describes the key points of the methodology as developed and implemented at several plant sites to identify and quantify energy savings and CO2 emissions abatement within the iron and steel plants for the short term (1-5 years), the medium term (5-10 years) and the long term (>10 years).