Critical Technological Assessment of the Viability of Future UK Steel Production

英国钢铁行业未来的需求机会很大，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，尤其是考虑到英国正在进入独立的贸易市场。另一方面，钢铁生产是二氧化碳排放的主要工业贡献者，通过综合高炉-转炉（高炉-碱性氧炉）路线，每吨卷材平均产生1.8吨二氧化碳，而基于废钢的电弧炉（电弧炉）路线通常仅产生二氧化碳排放量的四分之一与高炉-转炉路线相比。在英国，粗钢的产量约为80-20%，分别采用BF-BOF一体化路线和基于废钢的EAF路线。英国钢铁行业正受到一些重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的要求不断提高。此外，与欧盟和更广泛的全球竞争对手相比，它面临着很少或没有自然资源和更高能源成本的挑战。然而，随着技术战略的潜在变化，可以通过利用英国产生的丰富的废钢供应来获得显著的优势。由于商业模式在美国（如纽柯）和中东国家（如土耳其）的成功，转向以废料为基础的EAF行业作为低二氧化碳生产途径的前景已被广泛讨论。从表面上看，这与英国目前的废钢供应过剩以及预计到本世纪20年代的数量增长有关，为以废钢为基础的制造路线提供了动力。然而，尽管满足英国供应需求所需的废钢物理质量很可能是可用的，但其质量及其在我们社会中特定用途的适用性尚不清楚。目前，EAF路线无法生产BF-BOF路线能够生产的某些高质量钢材，例如汽车行业所需的高质量带钢，而汽车行业是英国生产钢材的重要用户。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路线需要明显更高的电能输入）。因此，需要考虑目前不同的处理路线如何使用废料，以及如何应对更高的废料使用量（包括废料质量的潜在可变性），同时评估废料处理/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可行的钢铁制造路线，这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级，满足英国经济发展（国内消费和出口），并实现低碳钢产业。将从技术角度评估三种工艺路线：BF-BOF路线，替代炼铁- bof路线和基于废铁的EAF路线。项目小组将以一种对英国钢铁部门有意义的方式，通过质量水平评估废料来源的分布，包括质量和可及性，同时根据不同工业部门通过三条确定的潜在工艺路线所需的产出对其进行分类。将探索更好的废料分类和成分控制的新技术，具有容纳高残余废料潜力的新钢铁制造技术，以及新的供应链设计。拟议的研究将给出一个清晰的轮廓，一个可行的英国钢铁行业在未来，并指出科学和技术的发展，以确保英国钢铁行业的可行性。

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.