Abstract:

The global iron and steel industry is responsible for around 7% of global energy-based greenhouse gas emissions and leading steel producers are committed to ambitious climate action. This paper presents an integrated production cost and carbon emission optimization solution to address the challenges steelmakers are facing to decarbonize their value chain and deal with the impact of carbon pricing on company’s competitiveness. The solution aims to optimize the total meltshop production cost related to raw material procurement and utilities consumption while reducing GHG emissions for primary steel making. The model can calculate scopes 1, 2 and all of scope 3 emissions and apply a carbon price to any subsection of the scopes, depending on the application. Simulated case studies demonstrate the cost benefits and GHG reduction and highlight the impacts of direct and indirect GHG emissions. The case study explores the calculation of scope 1, scope 2, and scope 3 categories 1 (purchased goods and services) and 3 (fuel and energy related activities) using production data including the carbon intensity impact of purchased scrap materials. The case study found that there is a breakeven point in operating strategy around the current cost of carbon in Canada.

Keywords: Stainless Steel, Decarbonization, Cost Optimization, Greenhouse Gas Emission

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Shuhong Shen