Abstract
According to the Financial Times the steel industry emissions accounted for 7-9% of total GHG emissions worldwide in 2019. The main share is directly related to the use of fossil coke and coal as fuels and reducing agents. About four solutions can be adopted to address such issue: direct reduction with hydrogen or syngas, electric arc furnaces, carbon capture and storage and use of biofuels (so-called “biocarbon”). These solutions can also be integrated. We propose applying innovative methods to produce biocarbon by pelletizing biocarbon with pyrolysis oil and reheating it at high temperatures to obtain materials with sufficient hardness, reduced porosity and reduced reactivity. The upgrade takes biocarbon closer to the requirements usually applied to metallurgical coke. We present also the results of technical and economic analysis plus environmental analysis on the expected final use of biocarbon in steel industry.
