Integrated Steelworks that Reduce CO<sub>2</sub> Emissions by More Than 80% ─ Challenge for Carbon-Neutral Integrated Steelworks ─

The authors have studied integrated steelworks that are able to achieve carbon neutrality. The process used in the study was a combination of a blast furnace and a pre-reducing furnace. The cases where hydrogen and ethylene were used as fuel were compared based on numerical simulations. As a result, it was found that when hydrogen was used, the reduction in CO2 emissions from the entire steelworks was only 45%, whereas when ethylene was used, CO2 emissions from the entire steelworks could be reduced by 86%. Ethylene can be obtained by the dehydration reaction of bioethanol, and can also be synthesized using surplus renewable electricity, which is expected to increase in the future, and CO2 emitted from steelworks.