E-TRACS: Embedding TRACeability in manufacturing construction Steel to aid reuse

*炼钢是高度能源密集型行业，约占全球二氧化碳排放量的7%，占英国工业二氧化碳/温室气体排放量的14%，相当于英国总排放量的2%(英国议会附注编号672,2022)。**英国2021年生产了720万吨钢铁，但它是钢铁净进口国。建筑业占世界钢铁需求的50%(世界钢铁协会，2022年)；英国的这一数字约为35%。尽管钢铁具有再利用的潜力，但建筑业回收了约91%的钢铁废料。这个回收过程消耗了大量的能源(在15000摄氏度下，相当于新钢材所需能源的三分之一)，并释放出大量的碳/温室气体排放\[剑桥大学少用组织(CUULG)，2020]。与Reccle的约65%(OffSite Hub，2022年)相比，重复使用的钢材已被证明节省了95%-97%的具体碳，CUULG已经显示出高达75%重复使用建筑钢材的潜力(目前为5%)。钢材是一项国家战略资产，为英国经济贡献了20亿GB的GVA，通过重复使用钢材，我们正在为子孙后代保护这一资产，并为英国供应提供弹性。目前，约80%的废钢用于出口；由于国内回收能力有限，87万吨废钢被送往其他国家回收。相反，钢铁可以重复利用，同时为当地带来价值，减少对钢铁生产的需求。然而，重复利用的一个关键挑战是材料的可追溯性。建筑钢材再利用涉及多个步骤，包括从拆除现场回收、由制造商进行再加工、测试以确认等级和CE认证。在没有材料历史的情况下，这是昂贵和耗时的，因此回收盛行，因为它仍然有助于实现可持续发展。许多研究(例如，Grau等人，2009年)已经证明，用于可追溯性的RFID和GPS减少了定位材料、清点和组装工作的时间(在由4800个钢部件组成的两个结构上节省了273,257美元)，由于砂纸打磨和暴露在恶劣天气条件下导致产品信息丢失的问题，这些问题很难付诸实践。该项目向其他行业(如汽车行业)学习，旨在进行可行性研究，以找到生产过程中跟踪/跟踪建筑钢材的最合适的解决方案，该解决方案将经受住时间的考验。初步探索将包括识别适合跟踪的钢材；合适的跟踪/跟踪系统技术；存储材料历史数据的数据库；移动应用程序扫描技术；以及机器学习图像识别技术。

**Steelmaking is highly energy-intensive and accounts for around 7% of global CO2 emissions, and 14% of industrial CO2/GHG emissions in the UK, equivalent to 2% of total UK emissions (UK-Parliament Postnote no.672, 2022).**The UK produced 7.2 million tonnes of steel in 2021 but is a net importer of steel. Construction-industry accounts for 50% of world steel demand (World Steel Association, 2022); the figure is around 35% for the UK. Despite steel's reuse potential, the construction industry recycles around 91% of its steel waste. This recycling process consumes massive energy (at 15000c, represents one-third of the energy required for new steel) and releases significant amounts of carbon/GHG emissions \[Cambridge University Use-Less Group (CUULG), 2020\]. Reused steel has been proven to save 95-97% of embodied carbon compared to recycle's circa 65% (Offsite Hub, 2022) and the CUULG has shown there is potential for up to 75% reuse of construction steel (currently 5%).Steel is a national strategic asset contributing £2 billion of GVA to the UK economy, and by reusing steel we are safeguarding this asset for future generations and providing resilience for UK supply. Currently, around 80% of scrap steel is exported; with 8.7Mt being sent for recycling in other countries due to the limited capacity to recycle it domestically. Instead, steel could be reused while bringing value locally and reducing the demand for steel production.However, a key challenge to reuse is material traceability. Construction steel reuse involves multiple steps including recovery from demolition site, reprocessing by fabricators, testing to confirm grade, and CE certification. This is costly and time-consuming when there is no material history hence the prevalence of recycling as it still helps tick the sustainability box. Many studies (e.g., Grau, et al., 2009) have proven that RFID and GPS for traceability reduce the time for locating materials, inventorying and assembly works (saving $273,257 on 2-structures composed of 4800 steel components), the problems of lost product information due to sanding and exposure to harsh weather conditions have made it difficult to put these into practice.Learning from others like the automotive industry, this project aims to conduct a feasibility study on finding the most suitable solution to tracing/tracking construction steel during production that will stand the test of time. Initial explorations will include identifying suitable steel for tracking; suitable trace/track system technologies; databases to host material history data; mobile app scan technologies; and machine-learning image recognition technologies.