With steel, cement, and mortar
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EDITORIAL
With steel, cement, and mortar ENERGY SECTOR ANALYSIS
A concrete path to sustainability ENERGY SECTOR ANALYSIS
A test of the steel industry’s metal INTERVIEW
Dresselhaus recounts work on energyrelated materials Supplementary: Video selections from Dresselhaus interview online ENERGY QUARTERLY ORGANIZERS CHAIR David Cahen, Weizmann Institute, Israel Anshu Bharadwaj, Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy, India Russell R. Chianelli, University of Texas, El Paso, USA George Crabtree, Argonne National Laboratory, USA Sabrina Sartori, University of Oslo, Institute for Energy Technology, Kjeller, Norway Anke Weidenkaff, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology and University of Bern, Switzerland M. Stanley Whittingham, State University of New York at Binghamton, USA Steve M. Yalisove, University of Michigan, USA
Images incorporated to create the energy puzzle concept used under license from Shutterstock.com. Energy Sector Analysis images: Metallurgist working by blast furnaces. Courtesy of Trinec Iron and Steel Works. Arcos plant, cement product testing in a laboratory, Brazil. © Lafarge. Courtesy of Carolina Reiss.
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With steel, cement, and mortar Steel is strong and ductile, but unfortunately, the global steel market is not. The annual global production of 1.5 billion tons far exceeds the present needs, and there are no major demands on the horizon that can consume so many millions in excess. The price of iron ore, a major component in steelmaking, has skyrocketed, making up over 20% of the cost of steel, prompting an observer to complain that the steel business has merely become “conversion” with wafer-thin margins of profitability. There are also other concerns. Iron and steel production consumes a large amount of energy and emits 2.7 billion tons of CO2 annually. In a developing country like India, iron and steel production alone consumes over 7% of total energy generation, and when added to the energy used in the manufacture of cement, accounts for over 10% of total energy generation. Iron and steel production is generally an efficient process. The efficiency has grown over decades, and in a few manufacturing stages has reached 90% of the theoretical value. How do we then improve the energy efficiency further and decrease CO2 production? Among the many innovative options suggested by the European conglomerate structured for this mission, Ultra Low-Carbon Dioxide Steelmaking (ULCOS), two processes, electrolysis and hydrogen substitution in the HIsarna process, do not directly use carbothermic reduction. Only with such innovations can steelmaking become economical and more energy efficient. Unlike the developed world, developing countries need millions of tons of steel to meet infrastructural needs, and this must be made available with technologies that use a minimum amount of carbon in steelmaking and minimum energy.
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