Decarbonising the world- one industry at a time

The decarbonisation (or at least reduction in carbon intensity) of energy intensive industries is impacting countries and businesses around the globe.

While little islands in the Pacific Ocean and The Maldives in the Indian Ocean fear for their very existence in a world that is warming up, countries with an established manufacturing base also struggle with the investments and modern technologies required for decarbonisation.

Steel making has always been an energy intensive business. As such it is one of the first to attempt decarbonisation. The Electric arc furnaces (EAF) which melts steel and iron scrap to produce steel are popular in the Westen World and also where electrical energy is cheap or subsidized

Countries with abundant iron ore reserves such as Brazil and India are more invested in the Blast Furnace (BF) route where iron ore is first made into pig iron or sponge iron and then reduced to steel. So do Japan, Korea and China. Attempts to decarbonise include making more of Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) which is an input raw material. DRI too requires mining of iron ore

Iron ore mining results in serious environmental degradation (“a hole in the ground”) and produces iron ore fines which need to be pelletised for further use. Iron ore mine development is also time consuming. If the ore is being mined and exported to countries such as China, Japan and Korea, then the lack of local value addition becomes an issue.

For some time now, AGR has been studying decarbonisation trends in multiple countries and in multiple businesses including steel, cement, chemicals and paper making. The investments that are required are being resisted in countries where plants were set up a while ago and are nearing end of life.

Decarbonisation would help businesses and countries improve their competitiveness and make the little islands in the Pacific safer and the rest of the world a better place to live.