Introduction

This document is drafted by IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme in support of the activities of the EU Zero Emissions Platforms (ZEP) assessment of potential CCS deployment in the energy intensive industries. It aims to provide an overview of the current state of the art in steel production worldwide and present a brief overview of the development of different technology options for CO2 capture in the steel industry.

Steel is the largest globally traded metal. In 2011, around 1.49 billion tonnes of crude steel were produced worldwide; of which ~45% was from China. Other leading steel producing regions or countries include the EU27 (12%), NAFTA1 (8%), CIS2 (8%), Japan (7%), and India (5%). In the last decade, steel production has achieved an average annual growth rate of around 5-6%.

In principle, steel is produced either from virgin ore or from scrap. Currently, there are three leading groups of technologies that produce steel from virgin ore. These include: (a.) Blast Furnace – Basic Oxygen Furnace (BF-BOF) route, (b.) Smelting Reduction – Basic Oxygen Furnace (SR-BOF) route, and (c.) Direct Reduction – Electric Arc Furnace (DRI-EAF) route. The electric arc furnace (EAF) is the only leading technology that produces crude steel from scrap; and the use of the induction furnace is unique to the Indian steel industry. Figure 2 illustrates the different routes on how crude steel are produced.

In 2011, around 69% of crude steel was produced from BOF and roughly 29% was produced from EAF3. Figure 3 presents the share of BOF and EAF in global steel production and the share of the metallic charge required to produce the crude steel. Figure 4 presents the share of BOF and EAF in various regions of the world.