Steel Industry Needs Tech-Tonic Shift To Touch Optimum Efficiency

Steelmaking is a primal industry that requires huge amounts of heat and energy. As such, it isn’t the first sector that springs to mind when it comes to energy efficiency and sustainability.

- Tamajit Pain & Sumit Maitra

Nevertheless, the industry is taking steps to improve its eco-credentials, employing a range of innovative technologies to reduce the environmental impact of steel production.

One example of this is the use of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) turbines at the Ori Martin steel plant in Brescia in northern Italy, which produces hot-rolled steel for the mechanical and automotive industries.

During summer operations, the ORC system generates enough energy from waste heat to meet the electricity consumption needs of 700 local families. In winter, the waste heat is used to heat up 2,000 households through the local district heating network.

This reduces the factory’s carbon footprint by 10,000 tons of CO2 a year, as well as eliminating the need for water-cooling.

The heat recovery system, which have been installed by a third party, and the ORC turbine, which have been installed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group company Turboden, capture the exhaust gases and turn them into electrical energy and thermal power.

They are based on the conventional steam turbine systems found in power plants. Instead of generating steam from water, however, the ORC system vaporizes an organic fluid. This not only removes the need for water, it also enables the turbines to run at lower speeds and pressures – using less energy – while minimizing metal erosion. It’s a lowcost system requiring limited maintenance, which doesn’t need a qualified operator as it runs automatically.

Circular economy Recycling is another way in which the steel industry can contribute to a cleaner and more sustainable future.

Steel in itself is 100 percent recyclable. It can be used repeatedly without loss of integrity. The industry has long been taking advantage of this by using scrap steel as an additional element in the steel making process, forming a circular loop where nothing is wasted.