DIRECT REDUCTION/EAF STEELMAKING -THE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY ROUTE

摘要

The most greenhouse gas and energy friendly steelmaking process is EAF melting of 100% scrap. As this practice is not conducive to high quality steelmaking, alternative iron units must be employed. FASTMET and FASTIRON offer advantages in raw material flexibility and lower energy consumption (due to their pre-reduced oxide form) with a minimal increase in carbon emissions over pig iron. Steelmaking waste oxide streams will not only facilitate zero waste operations but will reduce energy and emissions especially for a pig iron based practice. It is difficult to draw a long-term conclusion from the data presented herein, partly because of the impact of site-specific factors (economy, environmental, productivity value and infrastructure), but also because of undefined financial consequences of Carbon Taxes Worldwide. Currently, the major Industry concern is for lowering quantifiable energy costs. That would indicate non pig iron AIU sources at the 30% level required for high quality steel production. Depending upon the future steel demand and the economic impact of the threatened Carbon Tax, the best available option(s) may change or improve. Also, the use of product from a gas based MIDREX Process in natural gas rich countries could present the opportunity for industrialized countries to "buy" emissions credits from these natural gas rich countries thus lowering overall energy use and carbon emissions. In order to define the best available technology route for high quality steel production, a method enabling the global analysis of carbon emissions, total energy use and productivity must be defined.