Resource
issues in the
Steel Industry
Jean-Pierre BIRAT, Jean-Sébastien THOMAS, Pete HODGSON, Phlippe
RUSSO, Valentina COLLA, José Ignacio BARBERO, Borja PEÑA, Hermann
WOLFMEIER, Enrico MALFA
Industrial Technologies 2012
Integrating nano, materials and production
Resource-Efficient Process Industries Workshop
Aarhus, 19-21 June 2012
Research and
Innovation
Steel production, world (Mt/yr)
Policy
Research and
Innovation
Access to Resources,
Security of Supply,
Scarcities, Criticity,
Material Efficiency
Research and
Innovation
Concepts, words & practices
• access to resources: the Steel model has been
globalization, since the 1908s, with very large capsize
vessels and sourcing from Brazil & Australia of very high
grade iron ore and coals
• Materials
efficiency: Reduce, Reuse & Recycle (3R's),
• security of supply: not an issue for the time being in
organize
Industrial Ecology synergies
Europe
• Scarcity-scarcities:
• Long-Term scarcity: absolutely not!
• Short-Term scarcity: definitely yes!
• Materials efficiency: Reduce, Reuse & Recycle (3R's),
organize Industrial Ecology synergies
Policy
Research and
Innovation
Resources for steel and structural
materials
• Virgin Iron (iron ore) – virgin metal (ores)
• Scrap Iron (recycled, secondary) – metal scrap
• Reducing Agent (coal, coking coal, natural gas, oil,
electricity)
• Alloying elements (Mn, Cr, Ni, Ti, Va, Nb, Al, B, Cu,
Pb, Mo, Si, S, Zr, Fe)
• Refractories
• Logistics (transportation infrastructure and transport
vehicles/vessels, "oceans' viginity")
• Land and ecological services
Policy
Research and
Innovation
Raw materials for
the Steel sector
Research and
Innovation
Major traits and trends
• Long-term scarcity is never an issue
• Short-term scarcity induces price volatility and forces strategies of
vertical upstream integration
• Criticity is not an issue: this is the reason for the robustness of the
steel sector, a core, structural & sustainable (historically!) material
with high social value
• a few hot spots (Ni, Ti, low-Fe bauxite, etc.) related to geopolitical
issues, oligopolies, not real scarcity. But this may be just as serious…
• Recycling of iron works well but we are moving to a closed loop
economy for steel & iron: new issues…
• many Industrial Ecology synergies already in place: more can be
done, but the price needs to be right
• limits are due to the finiteness of the planet, not of resources we
need (logistics, land use)
Policy
Research and
Innovation
Iron mines in the world…
Policy
Research and
Innovation
New mines opening up in Scandinavia
Policy
Research and
Innovation
Vertical integration of the steel business
(example of ArcelorMittal)
Policy
Research and
Innovation
Ecodesign
3R's "Reduce"
Research and
Innovation
Ecodesign, reduce, dematerialization
• Ecodesign of steel processes ( SAT), steel grades, steel
solutions, consumer goods
• Ecodesign of the life-cycle: design for recycling (DfR),
design for dismantling (DfD), design for shredding (DfS),
design for sustainability (DfS)
• Sustainability Assessment of Technologies (SAT)
• Lightweighting & its limits, do more with less
• more durable, longer-life products
• more intensive use of products (car sharing, curbside cars)
• dematerialization, lean economy, zero and near-growth,
slow economy, etc.
• need for methodologies…
Policy
Research and
Innovation
Reutilization
3R's "Reuse"
Research and
Innovation
Reuse…
•
•
•
•
the model of the pre-industrial and traditional societies
beams, rails, sheet piles are fairly commonly reused
(Julian Allwood, WellMet2050 project)
DfR: Design for Reuse. What might the business
models look like and what systems would need to be in
place for these to be viable?
Policy
Research and
Innovation
Recycling, material
to material
3R's "Recycle"
Research and
Innovation
Recycling (material to material)
• Steel is recycled indefinitely ("the most recycled material"): 85%
• Steel recycling is NOT an externality (=makes money, has been
making money)
• Recycling leads to a closed-loop economy, over possibly the next
50 years…
scrap ratio (%)
0,80
0,70
0,60
0,50
0,40
0,30
0,20
0,10
0,00
1960
1980
2000
2020
2040
2060
2080
2100
2120
• Steel recycling allows for the co-recycling of other alloying
elements
Policy
Research and
Innovation
Recycling… (C2B, material to material)
• there are many different kinds of recycling
• Recycling does not always make good sense! Neither
from a physical nor from an economic standpoint (e.g.
cement, many plastics, CO2)
Policy
Research and
Innovation
Industrial ecology
models of
downgraded
recycling
Research and
Innovation
Other recycling… B2B
• a recognized practice. Examples from the steel
sector: slag to clinker, EAF dust to Zn smelting, waste
heat to district heat, etc.
• a matter of economics… best routes should pay for
themselves; subsidies and taxes should remain within
reason and help new technology start up their learning
curve
• there are most probably many potential new options and
opportunities to examine and many models (zero
waste, urban mining, industrial mining, waste water
recovery), which ought to be examined critically.. not
simply taken for granted!
Policy
Research and
Innovation
Conclusions?
Research and
Innovation
Conclusions…
• a long, 35 page ESTEP roadmap… with more than 40
directions to explore, which ought to let steel and steelusing sectors (=virtually the whole economy) become
more resource- and energy-efficient, greener and more
sustainable…
• no serious long term resource issues (scarcity), but price
volatility due to oligopolies, market organization,
speculation
• recycling in general requires much thought for the
future at a technical level (quality of scrap, etc.) and in
terms of internalization (industrial ecology synergies)
• Resource scarcity applies to things like logistics and
ecological services (water, ocean, biodiversity)
Policy
Research and
Innovation
Thank you!
•
•
•
•
•
Jean-Pierre BIRAT, Jean-Sébastien THOMAS, Pete HODGSON, Phlippe
RUSSO, ARCELORMITTAL, France
Valentina COLLA, SSSA, Italy
José Ignacio BARBERO, Borja PEÑA, Tecnalia, Spain
Hermann WOLFMEIER, voestalpine, Austria
Enrico MALFA, CSM, Italy
Policy
Research and
Innovation