OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 1

Steel, CO2 mitigation, CCS and ULCOS

Ultra-Low CO2 Steelmaking

Jean-Pierre BIRAT, ArcelorMittal

OECD Steel Committee

Paris, 5-6 December 2011

OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 2

Steel & CO2

• Steel produces about 5% of the world anthropogenic CO2 emissions (3-8%)

• 70% of steel is produced, today, in integrated steel mills, 30% in EAF mills (recycled steel=scrap, circular economy)

• integrated mills (IM) use coal (coke) as a reducing agent and transform it into CO2, when it scavenges metallic iron from iron ore in a Blast Furnace. "Ironmaking" accounts for roughly 80% of emissions in an IM and is thus “the” process that needs to be made carbon-lean.

• Steel simply cannot use technologies developed by other sectors: it had to develop its own solutions.

• Thus, to investigate, select and eventually develop them from scratch, the steel sector in Europe launched a common initiative called ULCOS.

OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 3

The ULCOS approach

• the ULCOS approach was developed in the early 2000s and

implemented in a major EU program in 2004:

– from a broad panel of potential production routes (80), select those

which can deliver a credible cut in emissions of 50% or more

– carry out this selection process inside the ULCOS consortium

– choose the most realistic solutions and scale them up within the

same consortium

– the scale up process is now called ULCOS II

• ULCOS has been the largest and most comprehensive effort in the

Steel sector all over the world to identify and practically develop

carbon-lean production routes. The 80 routes have been studied in

great detail, to the level of other publications in the field.

OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 4

Consortium

OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 5

Coal & sustainable biomass Natural gas Electricity

Revamped BF Greenfield Revamped DR or

greenfield

Greenfield

ULCOS-BF HIsarna ULCORED ULCOWIN

ULCOLYSIS

Pilot tests (1.5 t/h)

Demonstration

under way

Pilot plant (8 t/h)

started up in May2011

Pilot plant (1 t/h) to be

erected in 2013?

Laboratory

The 4 short-listed process routes

OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 6

CO2

CO O2

Underground

storage of CO2

0.8 t/tsteel

-100 kg coke/tsteel

CO2 emissions of the steel plant: - 60%

Full CCS demonstator,

filed as an NER-300 proposal

ULCOS-BF (TGR + CCS)

OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 7

iron

Iron ore

Coal

Oxygen

Oxygen

CCF cyclone

(CORUS)

Smelter

(HIsmelt)

CCS

Ijmuiden pilot

Strated up in 5/2011

HIsarna, smelting reduction

OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 8

HIsarna, smelting reduction

OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 9

• alkaline electrolyte with

dispersed hematite particles

• 3.5 kg samples of pure iron

• targets: 3 MWh/t, 90% Faradic

yield

• 0.1 A/m2, 1.8 V (target: 1.6)

• electrode materials identified

• inert anode

electrowinning cell

ULCOWIN

OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 10

1550°C

ULCOLYSIS

OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 11

0,0

5,0

10,0

15,0

20,0

25,0

BBF

BBF+C

CS(P

P)

TGR-B

F V4

HIS

ARNA

HIS

ARNA+C

CS

HIS

ARNA+E

AF

HIS

ARNA+C

CS+E

AF

MID

REX

MID

REX+C

CS

ULC

ORED

ULC

OW

IN

ULC

OLY

SIS

GJ

/t H

RC

Coals, oil and other C-rich sources Natural gas and biomass gas Electricity and energy vectors (steam, H2)

10-20% reduction vs. benchmark BF

-2,0

-1,5

-1,0

-0,5

0,0

0,5

1,0

1,5

2,0

BBF

BBF+C

CS(P

P)

TGR-B

F V4

HIS

ARNA

HIS

ARNA+C

CS

HIS

ARNA+E

AF

HIS

ARNA+C

CS+E

AF

MID

REX

MID

REX+C

CS

ULC

ORED

ULC

OW

IN

ULC

OLY

SIS

t C

O2/t

HR

C

Scope 1 Scope 2 CO2 captured

> 50% reduction vs. benchmark BF

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

BB

F

BB

F+

CC

S(P

P)

TG

RB

F V

4

HIS

AR

NA

HIS

AR

NA

+E

AF

HIS

AR

NA

+C

CS

HIS

AR

NA

+C

CS

+E

AF

UL

CO

RE

D

MID

RE

X

MID

RE

X +

CC

S

UL

CO

WIN

UL

CO

LY

SIS

CO2 release

Raw material and energy

Fix

still a "regret" solution vs. benchmark BF

0,0

10,0

20,0

30,0

40,0

50,0

60,0

70,0

80,0

90,0

100,0

BB

F

BB

F+

CC

S(P

P)

TG

R-B

F V

4

HIS

AR

NA

HIS

AR

NA

+C

CS

HIS

AR

NA

+EA

F

HIS

+C

CS+

EA

F

MID

REX

MID

REX+

CC

S

ULC

OR

ED

ULC

OW

IN

ULC

OLYSIS

2010

index

Cost of avoided CO2 = 1/2 end-of-pipe CCS

Performance of ULCOS routes

OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 12

CCS in ULCOS is an original process…

• CCS applied to Steel production cuts CO2 emissions (> 50%) but

also energy input (-25% coke consumption for ULCOS-BF)

• CSC also improves productivity (20-30% for ULCOS-BF)

• … and cuts CO2 abatement cost by half compared to an end-of-pipe

solution

• in the steel case, the CAPTURE part of CCS is an original concept

(in-process capture), which does not have much in common with

power-plant solutions; the STORAGE part might also be substantially

different

• in the Steel sector, CCS will not be a bridging technology… at least

for the next 50/100 years

OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 13

The future…

• ULCOS-BF demonstrator to be built and started up within 5 years

• the demonstrator has to operate for at least 10 years (NER-300)

• industrial deployment, based on "technological realism" (feasibility),

might start in the 2020s

• … but, beyond these technological issues, there remains many

political and economic issues, which will have to be tackled at the

appropriate geopolitical scale

• parallel to ULCOS-BF, we have been developing a line of ULCOS

solutions, targeted at the world more than at Europe, which ought to

reach maturity with a delay (5 to 20 years) compared to ULCOS-BF

OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 14

Electrolysis cell

PV cell

OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 15

OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 5-6 Decemer 2011 16

• Part of the work reported here has been supported by grants of the

EU from the 6FP and RFCS programs, as well as by ADEME and

ANR, France