Critical Technological Assessment of the Viability of Future UK Steel Production

英国未来钢铁生产可行性的关键技术评估

• 批准号: EP/S013318/1
• 负责人: Zushu Li
• 金额: $ 52.08万
• 依托单位: University of Warwick
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FS013318%2F1
• 关键词: Critical; Technological; Assessment; Viability; Future

There is a significant future UK demand opportunity for the UK steel industry, and a sustainable UK steel industry is vitally important to the UK's future growth prospects especially considering the now independent trading market the country is moving into. On the other hand, steel production is a major industrial contributor to CO2 emissions with on average 1.8 tonnes of CO2 produced per tonne of rolled coil via the integrated BF-BOF (blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace) route, while the scrap-based EAF (electric arc furnace) route in general only produces a quarter of the CO2 emissions compared to the BF-BOF route. Crude steel was produced in the UK at about 80-20% split between the BF-BOF integrated route and scrap-based EAF route, respectively.The UK steel industry is being affected by grand trends and challenges, for example, strict environmental regulations, new energy and materials sources, global over-capacity and ever increasing customer requirements for high quality steel products. Additionally, it faces these challenges with little/no natural resources and higher energy cost compared to the EU and wider global competitors. However, with a potential change in technology strategy, significant advantages can be made through the exploitation of the abundant supply of UK generated steel scrap.The prospect of moving to a scrap-based EAF industry as a low CO2 production pathway has been widely discussed because of the success of the business model in the US (e.g. Nucor) and Middle Eastern countries such as Turkey. This, linked with the current over-supply of steel scrap in the UK and its projected growth in quantity into the 2020's, gives, at the surface, a motivation for a scrap-based manufacturing route. However although the needed physical mass of scrap to cover UK supply requirements is likely to be available, the quality and thus applicability to the specific use of steel in our society is yet unknown. Currently the EAF route cannot produce certain high quality steel grades that the BF-BOF route is capable of, such as the high quality strip steels required by the automotive industry, a significant UK user of UK produced steel. In addition any viable UK steel industry needs to consider the current asset base and future UK energy strategy (for example, EAF route requires significantly higher electrical energy input). Therefore consideration of how different processing routes currently use scrap and can respond to higher scrap use (including the potential variability in scrap quality) is needed, along with an assessment of new technologies for scrap handling / sorting and steel manufacturing, all in the UK context. The proposed research aims to evaluate the potential viable steel manufacturing routes in the UK, which can maximise the use of the abundant UK steel scrap supply for the production of high quality steel grades, meet the UK economic development (domestic consumption and export), and achieve a low carbon steel industry. Three process routes will be assessed from a technology point of view: the BF-BOF route, an alternative ironmaking-BOF route, and the scrap-based EAF route.The project team will evaluate the distribution of scrap sources through levels of quality in a manner meaningful to the UK steel sector, including quality and accessibility while categorizing these against required outputs by different industrial sectors through the three identified potential process routes. New technologies for better scrap sorting and composition control, new steel manufacturing technologies with the potential to accommodate high residual scrap, and novel supply chain design will be explored. The proposed research will give a clear outline of a viable UK steel industry in the future and point out scientific and technological developments required to ensure the viability of the UK steel industry.

英国钢铁行业未来的需求机会巨大，可持续发展的英国钢铁行业对英国未来的增长前景至关重要，特别是考虑到该国正在进入的独立贸易市场。另一方面，钢铁生产是CO2排放的主要工业贡献者，通过综合BF-BOF（高炉-氧气顶吹转炉）路线，每吨轧制钢卷平均产生1.8吨CO2，而与BF-BOF路线相比，基于废料的EAF（电弧炉）路线通常仅产生CO2排放量的四分之一。英国的粗钢产量中，约80-20%分别来自高炉-转炉一体化流程和废钢电炉流程。英国钢铁行业正受到大趋势和挑战的影响，例如严格的环境法规、新能源和新材料来源、全球产能过剩以及客户对高质量钢铁产品日益增长的需求。此外，与欧盟和更广泛的全球竞争对手相比，它面临着很少/没有自然资源和更高的能源成本的挑战。然而，随着技术战略的潜在变化，通过利用英国产生的大量废钢可以获得显著优势。由于美国（如Nucor）和中东国家（如土耳其）的商业模式取得了成功，因此，转向废钢电弧炉行业作为低CO2生产途径的前景已被广泛讨论。这与英国目前的废钢供应过剩及其到2020年代的预计数量增长有关，表面上看，这是一种基于废钢的制造路线的动机。然而，尽管满足英国供应要求所需的废钢物理量可能是可用的，但其质量以及在我们社会中对钢的具体用途的适用性仍然是未知的。目前，EAF路线不能生产BF-BOF路线能够生产的某些高质量钢种，例如汽车工业所需的高质量带钢，汽车工业是英国生产的钢铁的重要用户。此外，任何可行的英国钢铁行业都需要考虑当前的资产基础和未来的英国能源战略（例如，EAF路线需要更高的电能输入）。因此，需要考虑目前不同的加工路线如何使用废料，以及如何应对废料使用量增加（包括废料质量的潜在变化），沿着需要评估废料处理/分类和钢铁制造的新技术，所有这些都是在英国的情况下进行的。拟议的研究旨在评估英国潜在的可行钢铁制造路线，这些路线可以最大限度地利用英国丰富的废钢供应来生产高质量的钢种，满足英国经济发展（国内消费和出口），并实现低碳钢工业。将从技术角度评估三条工艺路线：BF-BOF路线、炼铁-BOF替代路线和基于废料的EAF路线。项目组将以对英国钢铁行业有意义的方式，通过质量水平评估废料来源的分布，包括质量和可及性，同时通过三个确定的潜在流程根据不同工业部门所需的产出对这些进行分类航线将探索更好地进行废料分类和成分控制的新技术，具有容纳高残留废料潜力的新钢铁制造技术，以及新颖的供应链设计。拟议的研究将为未来可行的英国钢铁工业提供清晰的轮廓，并指出确保英国钢铁工业可行性所需的科学和技术发展。

项目成果

Synergistic effect of residual elements on oxidation rates and oxide/metal interface characteristics in a low-carbon steel oxidized at 1180°C for 3 hours

• DOI: 10.1080/03019233.2023.2201545
• 发表时间: 2023-05
• 期刊: Ironmaking & Steelmaking
• 影响因子: 2.1
• 作者: Jiaqi Duan;D. Farrugia;C. Davis;Zhiming Yan;Zushu Li

Effects of residual elements during the casting process of steel production: a critical review

• DOI: 10.1080/03019233.2021.1898869
• 发表时间: 2021-03
• 期刊: Ironmaking & Steelmaking
• 影响因子: 2.1
• 作者: Ishwar Kapoor;C. Davis;Zushu Li

Texture Development During Annealing in a Low-Carbon Formable Steel Containing Impurities from Increased Scrap Use

• DOI: 10.1007/s11661-022-06952-3
• 发表时间: 2023-01
• 期刊: Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A
• 作者: J. Duan;D. Farrugia;C. Davis;Zushu Li

Modelling the cumulative effect of scrap usage within a circular UK steel industry - residual element aggregation

对英国循环钢铁工业中废钢使用的累积效应进行建模 - 残余元素聚合

• DOI: 10.1080/03019233.2020.1805276
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Ironmaking & Steelmaking
• 影响因子: 2.1
• 作者: Spooner S

Drivers and enablers/inhibitors of forming a circular supply chain in the UK steel industry

英国钢铁行业形成循环供应链的驱动因素和促进因素/抑制因素

• 发表时间: 2020
• 作者: Zhang W