7TH EUROPEAN COKE AND IRONMAKING CONGRESS - ECIC 2016

Steps to reduce greenhouse emission gases (CO2) are increasingly becoming a matter of priority for the industry, particularly for the iron & steel industry, which is the largest consumer of the world's generated energy on a global basis. This paper outlines the principal factors necessary for evaluating CO2 emission rates as the basis for comparing the net CO2 emission figures for different iron & steel production routes from cradle to grave. Calculations show that CO2 emissions considerably depend on the assumptions for the system borders and some external factors e.g. the specific emission values for grid electricity. Based on the calculations carried out, it also was shown that already today the COREX/DR/EAF combination can shows CO2 emissions that are by far lower compared to any other coal based steelmaking configuration. The topics presented in this paper in relationship to the concerns of the iron & steelmaking industry are rarely dealt with in metallurgical journals, however, are becoming increasingly important because of environmental, political and especially economic reasons.