Recycling: The route to decarbonisation

India, the second-largest steelmaker in the world, is also the second-largest importer of steel scrap. Surely India fares poorly in terms of scrap generation and consumption despite steel being the most recyclable metal in the world.

- Sumit Maitra & Tamajit Pain

Not only can steel products be reused and remanufactured, steel is also a permanent material, which can be recycled over and over again without losing its properties.

Domestic scrap demand is estimated at around 25-28 million ton (mt) with import being 5.57 mt.

In contrast, with steel output touching 1 billion tons, consumption of scrap by China’s steelmakers has increased from 90 mt in 2016 to 230 mt in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of 9.8 percent.

Growing domestic steel-making capacities and phasing out unfit and polluting vehicles will generate more scrap.

Usage of scrap in steelmaking is gaining importance with the necessity to reduce the usage of fossil fuel, mainly coking coal, in steel production.

Also, the conventional steel-making process is giving way to Green Steel using inputs like hydrogen, bio-waste or steel scraps.

Recycling 1 ton of scrap saves 1.1 tons of iron ore, 06-0.7 ton of coking coal and around 0.2-0.3 ton of fluxes.

Besides, specific energy consumption is also reduced drastically as the requirement of energy for production of steel through primary and secondary routes is 14 Mega Joules/Kg and 11.7 MJ/ Kg respectively.

It leads to savings in energy by 16-17 percent. It also reduces water consumption and GHG emission by 40 percent and 58 percent respectively.

Decarbonisation initiatives