Research and Innovation Research and Innovation Resource issues in the Steel Industry Industrial Technologies 2012 Integrating nano, materials and production.

Research and Innovation


Resource issues in the Steel Industry

Industrial Technologies 2012Integrating nano, materials and productionResource-Efficient Process Industries WorkshopAarhus, 19-21 June 2012

Jean-Pierre BIRAT, Jean-Sébastien THOMAS, Pete HODGSON, Phlippe RUSSO, Valentina COLLA, José Ignacio BARBERO, Borja PEÑA, Hermann WOLFMEIER, Enrico MALFA

PolicyPolicy Research and Innovation


Steel production, world (Mt/yr)



Access to Resources, Security of Supply, Scarcities, Criticity, Material Efficiency



Concepts, words & practices

• access to resources: the Steel model has been globalization, since the 1908s, with very large capsize vessels and sourcing from Brazil & Australia of very high grade iron ore and coals

• security of supply: not an issue for the time being in Europe

• Scarcity-scarcities:• Long-Term scarcity: absolutely not!• Short-Term scarcity: definitely yes!

• Materials efficiency: Reduce, Reuse & Recycle (3R's), organize Industrial Ecology synergies

• Materials efficiency: Reduce, Reuse & Recycle (3R's), organize Industrial Ecology synergies



Resources for steel and structural materials

• Virgin Iron (iron ore) – virgin metal (ores)• Scrap Iron (recycled, secondary) – metal scrap• Reducing Agent (coal, coking coal, natural gas, oil,

electricity)• Alloying elements (Mn, Cr, Ni, Ti, Va, Nb, Al, B, Cu, Pb,

Mo, Si, S, Zr, Fe)• Refractories• Logistics (transportation infrastructure and transport

vehicles/vessels, "oceans' viginity")• Land and ecological services



Raw materials for the Steel sector



Major traits and trends

• Long-term scarcity is never an issue• Short-term scarcity induces price volatility and forces strategies of

vertical upstream integration• Criticity is not an issue: this is the reason for the robustness of the

steel sector, a core, structural & sustainable (historically!) material with high social value

• a few hot spots (Ni, Ti, low-Fe bauxite, etc.) related to geopolitical issues, oligopolies, not real scarcity. But this may be just as serious…

• Recycling of iron works well but we are moving to a closed loop economy for steel & iron: new issues…

• many Industrial Ecology synergies already in place: more can be done, but the price needs to be right

• limits are due to the finiteness of the planet, not of resources we need (logistics, land use)



Iron mines in the world…



New mines opening up in Scandinavia



Vertical integration of the steel business (example of ArcelorMittal)



Ecodesign3R's "Reduce"



Ecodesign, reduce, dematerialization

• Ecodesign of steel processes ( SAT), steel grades, steel solutions, consumer goods

• Ecodesign of the life-cycle: design for recycling (DfR), design for dismantling (DfD), design for shredding (DfS), design for sustainability (DfS)

• Sustainability Assessment of Technologies (SAT)• Lightweighting & its limits, do more with less• more durable, longer-life products• more intensive use of products (car sharing, curbside cars)• dematerialization, lean economy, zero and near-growth, slow

economy, etc.• need for methodologies…



Reutilization3R's "Reuse"



Reuse…

• the model of the pre-industrial and traditional societies• beams, rails, sheet piles are fairly commonly reused• (Julian Allwood, WellMet2050 project)• DfR: Design for Reuse. What might the business

models look like and what systems would need to be in place for these to be viable?



Recycling, material to material3R's "Recycle"



Recycling (material to material)

• Steel is recycled indefinitely ("the most recycled material"): 85%• Steel recycling is NOT an externality (=makes money, has been

making money)• Recycling leads to a closed-loop economy, over possibly the next

50 years…

• Steel recycling allows for the co-recycling of other alloying elements

0,00

0,10

0,20

0,30

0,40

0,50

0,60

0,70

0,80

1960 1980 2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100 2120

scrap ratio (%)



Recycling… (C2B, material to material)

• there are many different kinds of recycling

• Recycling does not always make good sense! Neither from a physical nor from an economic standpoint (e.g. cement, many plastics, CO2)



Industrial ecology models of downgraded recycling



Other recycling… B2B

• a recognized practice. Examples from the steel sector: slag to clinker, EAF dust to Zn smelting, waste heat to district heat, etc.

• a matter of economics… best routes should pay for themselves; subsidies and taxes should remain within reason and help new technology start up their learning curve

• there are most probably many potential new options and opportunities to examine and many models (zero waste, urban mining, industrial mining, waste water recovery), which ought to be examined critically.. not simply taken for granted!



Conclusions?



Conclusions…

• a long, 35 page ESTEP roadmap… with more than 40 directions to explore, which ought to let steel and steel-using sectors (=virtually the whole economy) become more resource- and energy-efficient, greener and more sustainable…

• no serious long term resource issues (scarcity), but price volatility due to oligopolies, market organization, speculation

• recycling in general requires much thought for the future at a technical level (quality of scrap, etc.) and in terms of internalization (industrial ecology synergies)

• Resource scarcity applies to things like logistics and ecological services (water, ocean, biodiversity)



Thank you!

• Jean-Pierre BIRAT, Jean-Sébastien THOMAS, Pete HODGSON, Phlippe RUSSO, ARCELORMITTAL, France

• Valentina COLLA, SSSA, Italy• José Ignacio BARBERO, Borja PEÑA, Tecnalia, Spain• Hermann WOLFMEIER, voestalpine, Austria• Enrico MALFA, CSM, Italy

Research and Innovation Research and Innovation Resource issues in the Steel Industry Industrial Technologies 2012 Integrating nano, materials and production.

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