BMBF Project EcoSteel

Development of a reference modell for the ecological balancing of electric steelmaking for the process optimization and CO2 reduction

Pro­ject part­ner: ifu Ham­burg GmbH
The rese­arch pro­ject aims to impro­ve the sus­taina­bi­li­ty and resour­ce effi­ci­en­cy of elec­tric steel pro­duc­tion in elec­tric arc fur­naces by means of a spe­cial mate­ri­al flow model. A life cycle assess­ment is an envi­ron­men­tal infor­ma­ti­on instru­ment and can be used to eva­lua­te indus­tri­al pro­ducts and pro­ces­ses. With the help of the model to be deve­lo­ped, the life cycle assess­ment can be cal­cu­la­ted, i.e. the eco­lo­gi­cal dimen­si­on of the pro­ducts and pro­ces­ses can be con­side­red. In the same model it will also be pos­si­ble to cal­cu­la­te the eco­no­mic dimen­si­on and thus ulti­m­ate­ly the eco-efficiency.

In addi­ti­on to the metho­do­lo­gi­cal approach, the use of biochar as a sub­sti­tu­te for fos­sil coal in elec­tric steel pro­duc­tion will also be inves­ti­ga­ted as an exam­p­le during the rese­arch pro­ject. In this way, the sus­taina­bi­li­ty and resour­ce effi­ci­en­cy of the high­ly ener­gy-inten­si­ve pro­cess is to be increased. In con­trast to fos­sil fuels, the sub­s­tances known as biochar are pro­du­ced from rege­ne­ra­ti­ve bio­mass. As a result, they have an emis­si­on fac­tor of zero within the frame­work of the Euro­pean emis­si­ons tra­ding sys­tem, so that no emis­si­on cer­ti­fi­ca­tes are requi­red for their combustion.