Capture and reduction of carbon emissions to maximise circularity in the steelmaking process

在向更循环的经济转型时，钢是一种关键材料，因为它固有的可回收性，同时保持其性能。然而，钢铁行业贡献了全球人为二氧化碳排放量的7%-8%。钢铁行业面临的问题是在减少排放的同时增加供应，以满足额外的需求。关键是要解决这一悖论，以防止二氧化碳排放“离岸”，这实际上并不能解决问题。碳捕获利用和储存(CCUS)已经被证明在技术上是可行的，通过一系列的研究表明，排放的二氧化碳被捕获、加工和用作原料来生产另一种材料，例如伯醇和航空燃料。变压吸收和吸附增强水气变换等技术已经被证明在捕获和分离该过程中的气体排放方面是有效的，并且已经通过生物和催化过程从清洁的二氧化碳气流中生产出有用的化学物质。这项研究将捕获过程气体并开发过程来生产“清洁的”氢和二氧化碳。然后，二氧化碳将被计入新产品中(例如甲烷)。生产甲烷的基本原理是在直接还原铁(DRI)生产中用作还原剂，这是减少原生铁和炼钢排放的潜在解决方案的先行者。

Steel is a critical material when transitioning to a more circular economy due to its inherent recyclability whilst maintaining its properties. However, the steel industry contributes 7-8% of the global anthropogenic CO2 emissions. The problem the steel industry faces is reducing emissions whilst increasing supply to meet additional demand. It is key that this paradox is solved to prevent the CO2 emissions being "off-shored" which does not actually solve the problem. Carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) has been shown to be technically feasible via a series of studies whereby CO2 emitted is captured processed and utilised as a feedstock to produce another material, examples being primary alcohols and aviation fuels.Technologies such as pressure swing absorption and sorption enhanced water gas shift have been shown to be effective in capturing and separating the gaseous emissions from the process and there have been some successes in producing useful chemicals from the clean CO2 stream via biological and catalytic processes.This study will capture process gases and develop processes to yield a 'clean' hydrogen and CO2. The CO2 will then be valorised into new products (e.g. methane). The rationale for production of methane is to utilise as a reductant in Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) production which is a forerunner in the potential solutions to reduce emissions from primary iron and steelmaking.