EU metallurgy under pressure from climate policy

The climatic requirements of the European Union and the changing needs of buyers make the European steel industry more and more investment-oriented in the pursuit of new technologies.

Europe aims to force industry to cut carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030. As far as metallurgy is concerned, it is so difficult that regardless of the pressure of environmentalists or politicians, there is a certain level of emissions below which integrated metallurgical plants cannot function.

The blast furnace process is basically a high-temperature chemical reaction in which carbon (an element, not a raw material) from coke binds with oxygen from the ore, i.e. iron oxide, to form crude steel and carbon dioxide.

ArcelorMittal R&D department reminds that for the production of a ton of steel from iron ore, 1.2-2 tonnes of carbon dioxide are produced. Blast furnace emissions cannot be reduced. So if carbon dioxide “should be,” then the steel industry is trying to use it instead of coke.