Researchers from the University of Birmingham, in the UK, have designed a novel adaptation for existing iron and steel furnaces that could reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from the steelmaking industry by nearly 90%.

This radical reduction is achieved through a ‘closed loop’ carbon recycling system, which could replace 90% of the coke typically used in current blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace systems and produce oxygen as a by-product.

Devised by Professor Yulong Ding and Dr Harriet Kildahl from the University of Birmingham’sSchool of Chemical Engineering, the system is detailed in apaper published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.

The paper shows that if implemented in the UK alone, it could deliver cost savings of £1.28-billion in five years while reducing overall UK emissions by 2.9%.

Ding says that current proposals for decarbonising the steel sector rely on phasing out existing plants and introducing electric arc furnaces powered by renewable electricity.

However, an electric arc furnace plant can cost over £1-billion to build, which makes this switch economically unfeasible in the time remaining to meet the Paris Climate Agreement.

“The system we are proposing can be retrofitted to existing plants, which reduces the risk of stranded assets, and both the reduction in CO₂, and the cost savings, are seen immediately,” he says.

The novel recycling system captures the CO₂ from the top gas and reduces it to CO using a crystalline mineral lattice known as a ‘perovskite’ material.

The material was chosen as the reactions take place at temperatures ranging between 700 ºC and 800 ºC that can be powered by renewable energy sources and/or generated using heat exchangers connected to the blast furnaces.

Most of the world’s steel is produced by blast furnaces which produce iron from iron-ore and basic oxygen furnaces which turn that iron into steel.

The process is inherently carbon intensive, using metallurgical coke produced by destructive distillation of coal in a coke oven, which reacts with the oxygen in the hot air blast to produce carbon monoxide.

This reacts with the iron-ore in the furnace to produce CO₂.

The top gas from the furnace contains mainly nitrogen, CO and CO₂ which is burned to raise the air blast temperature up to 1 200 °C to 1 350 °C in a hot stove before being blown to the furnace, with the CO₂ and N₂ – also containing NOx – emitted to the environment.

Under a high concentration of CO₂ the perovskite splits CO₂ into oxygen, which is absorbed into the lattice, and CO, which is fed back into the blast furnace.

The perovskite can be regenerated to its original form in a chemical reaction that takes place in a low oxygen environment.

The oxygen produced can be used in the basic oxygen furnace to produce steel.

The new system can be retrofitted to existing furnaces, with the addition of an array of additional gas separators and heat exchangers required to support the perovskite splitter.

Iron and steelmaking is the biggest emitter of CO₂ of all foundation industrial sectors, accounting for 9% of global emissions.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency it must achieve a 90% reduction in emissions by 2050 to limit global warming to 1.5 ºC above preindustrial levels.

University of Birmingham Enterprise has filed a patent application covering the system and its use in metal production and is looking for long-term partners to participate in pilot studies, deliver this technology to existing infrastructure, or collaborate on further research to develop the system.