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by roenxi
616 days ago
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> Except that’s not why the current furnaces are being shut down. They’re being closed because of emissions. You've said something like that a few times. Do you have a source for the mechanism by which it is being done? Because your links don't support the idea that this is being done to meet a climate target. They talk about the high costs and large daily losses (£1m a day) that the blast furnaces were facing. When you factor in the supply problem that the UK has with coal that is surely an energy problem. |
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Tata's decarbonisation plans - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c03jy91w87ko
British steel talking about their plans for decarbonisation - https://britishsteel.co.uk/news/british-steel-today-unveils-...
Both also talk in other places about their lack of profitability, sure, at least in part that seems to be down to crumbling, ageing facilities -
https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/news/tata-steel-to-close...
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgm7xp1erkeo
"Imports of raw materials are continuing but have reduced in light of ongoing production issues. We are working to restore production levels from our ageing blast furnaces"
Both are moving to energy intensive but greener arc furnaces which don't run directly from fossil fuel and which will recycle steel, with partial government backing/investment.
Is energy cost a factor ? Perhaps, but is seems far from a cut-and-dried simple narrative.
Is loss of 'virgin' steel production in the UK a big deal? Yeah probably. But it seems like virgin steel production and climate goals are currently incompatible, which is a bit of an issue!
As hydrogen-based ore refining is not yet very widespread this raises all of the usual questions about whether developed nations are simply exporting their CO2 emissions overseas, though if recycling with arc furnaces can cover part of the shortfall it's less bad. There is (AFAICT) one H2-based virgin steel production facility in Sweden - https://www.mining-technology.com/news/green-steel-hydrogen/ - which perhaps shows the way forward, using H2 to produce "Sponge Iron" from ore, which then goes to an arc furnace. A first stage iron ore facility like this could potentially feed the new arc reactors in the UK, but from what I can see nobody is proposing to build one of those.