7TH EUROPEAN COKE AND IRONMAKING CONGRESS - ECIC 2016

The blast furnace process is worldwide the dominant technology for producing metallic pre-products for steelmaking. Today, blast furnaces are operated close to thermodynamic equilibria. The carbon-based iron ore reduction process inevitably causes CO2 emissions. With regard to reducing CO2 emissions, the coke/pulverized coal injection operation is compared with various process alternatives: Use of pre-reduced material (HBI: Hot Briquetted Iron) and injection of natural gas or hydrogen, and the respective CO2 abatement costs are calculated. Another way of reducing CO2 emissions is to use the by-product gases arising in an integrated iron and steel mill for the production of valuable chemical raw materials which is to be examined in a “cross-industrial“ project jointly carried out between steel and chemical industries and energy suppliers.