SPE 138567

Carbon Capture Ready Steel Plants

Mayuram S Balasubramanian & Tarik Afachtal, Masdar, Abu Dhabi

Copyright 2010, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference held in Abu Dhabi, UAE, 1–4 November 2010.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been reviewed
by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or
members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is
restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract

Nearly a third of the world’s energy consumption and 36% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are attributable to manufacturing
industries (1). The iron and steel industry accounts for about 19% of final energy use and about a 25% of direct CO2 emissions
from the industry sector (1).

UAE is a major consumer of steel with per capita consumption significantly higher than that for the Middle East (over 20 times)
and various upcoming infrastructure projects are expected to drive the steel requirements to even higher levels in the future (2).

The steel industry within the UAE is rapidly adding capacity to reduce the import requirements for steel products. Thus, steel mills
are expected to be an important source of bulk CO2 in the future in the UAE, whether for capture and sequestration or for EOR.

The Steel making process determines the type of streams containing the emitted CO2 and the concentration of CO2 in these
streams. Different technologies for steel making present different opportunities for integration of carbon capture technologies i.e
Post Combustion, Pre Combustion and Oxy fuel type carbon capture technologies. Also, the type and extent of heat/power
integration could influence the carbon capture potential and readiness of a steel plant to capture the CO2. The feasibility of energy
recovery and carbon capture is also improved by developing a suitable equipment layout.

This paper examines the relationship and impact of steel making technology selection, equipment layout, utility integration and
process integration of different carbon capture techniques to establish a concept of carbon capture ready steel mill in the future and
to make the existing steel mills more carbon capture friendly.

Introduction

Steel plants are large energy consumers and contribute to a significant part of the CO2 emissions from the manufacturing sector
and are a significant source of CO2 for use in EOR applications. Moreover, there is a trend to move towards green technology
worldwide, driven by growing awareness of corporate social responsibility in terms of emissions and the effect of these emissions
on the environment. Increasing energy costs, cap and trade schemes, sustainable green building codes and requirements for
improved vehicle fuel efficiencies are also major influencers of R&D within the steel sector leading to improved thermal
efficiencies to reduce the carbon footprint of steel products. At present there is no cap on CO2 emissions from the industrial sector
within the UAE; however it is not clear how long this will situation will remain. Therefore, Industry in the UAE will benefit by
exploring the technology options to reduce energy consumption and the CO2 emissions from existing steel plants and to design
future plants with minimum CO2 emission or ready for carbon capture at a future date. In the above context, the paper examines
the relationship and impact of steel making technology selection, equipment layout, utility integration and process integration of
different carbon capture techniques to establish a concept of carbon capture ready steel mill in the future and to make the existing
steel mills more carbon capture friendly.
2 SPE 138567

Steel making processes

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. There are three main process routes for the production of steel:
• Blast Furnace (BF) – Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) Route, producing approximately 2 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of liquid
steel.
• Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) – Electric Arc Furnace Route (EAF), producing approximately 1 tonne of CO2 per tonne of
liquid steel.
• Steel Scrap – EAF Route, producing approximately 0.6 tonne of CO2 per tonne of liquid steel.

The first two routes are known as primary steelmaking processes because they convert iron oxide feedstock into steel. The third
route is considered a secondary steelmaking process because it converts existing steel units rather than iron units into steel.
Approximately 70 – 75% of global steel production is via the primary steelmaking processes.

Primary steel is produced in a two-stage process. First, iron ore is reduced or smelted with coke and limestone in either a blast
furnace, which produces liquid iron or direct reduced iron (DRI) process, which produces solid iron pellets. In the second stage,
known as steelmaking, impurities such as sulfur, phosphorus, and excess carbon are removed and alloying elements such as
manganese, nickel, chromium and vanadium are added to produce the exact steel composition and mechanical properties.

The liquid steel produced is cast into semi-finished product such as billet, bloom or slab, which is then used as feedstock into the
rolling mill process where finished products, such as reinforcing bar, wire rod, structural sections, hot rolled coil and plate are
produced. The ‘primary’ steel products can then be used as feedstock for further downstream processes such as pipe making, cold
rolling, galvanizing, rope making etc.

The BF iron making process differs significantly from the DRI iron making process; however it is important to note that both
processes are carbon based. The former uses carbon in the form of coal or coke and the latter uses carbon in the form of natural
gas. Another point to note is that the BF process requires limestone whereas the DRI process does not.

Because of the energy cost and structural stress associated with heating and cooling a blast furnace, typically these primary
steelmaking vessels will operate on a continuous production campaign of several years duration. Even during periods of low steel
demand, it may not be feasible to let the blast furnace grow cold, though some adjustment of the production rate is possible. DRI
Plants also run on a continuous basis with major shutdowns typically every 18 – 24 months.

Integrated mills are large facilities. Blast Furnaces have a capacity 2,000,000 tonne per year annual capacity and up. DRI Plants
have capacities typically in the range 250,000 tonnes per year to 2,000,000 tonnes per year.

A mini-mill is traditionally a secondary steel producer using scrap as feedstock. Usually it obtains most of its iron from scrap steel,
recycled from used automobiles and equipment or byproducts of manufacturing. However, due to its economic advantages in
terms of Capex over the integrated steel mill, it is used in preference to the integrated steel mill by some large steel makers. Cold
direct reduced iron (DRI) can also be used as raw material in a scrap based mini mill typically in the range of 5% to 20% of the
charge mix.. A typical mini-mill will have an electric arc furnace for scrap melting, a ladle furnace or vacuum furnace for precision
control of chemistry, a continuous caster for converting molten steel to solid form, a reheat furnace and a rolling mill. Recent
advances have been made in the continuous casting of strip from liquid steel; thereby eliminating the energy intensive reheat
process.

Originally the mini-mill concept was adapted to production of bar products only, such as concrete reinforcing bar, flats, angles,
channels, pipe, and light rails. Since the late 1980s, successful introduction of the direct strip casting process has made mini-mill
production of strip feasible. Often a mini-mill will be constructed in an area with no other steel production, to take advantage of
local resources,lower-cost labour and proximity to customers. Mini-mill plants may specialize, for example, making coils of rod
for wire-drawing use, or pipe, or in special sections for use in a variety of sectors such as transportation and agriculture.

Capacities of mini-mills vary; some plants may make as much as 3,000,000 tons per year, a typical size is in the range 200,000 to
400,000 tons per year, and some old or specialty plants may make as little as 50,000 tons per year of finished product.

Since the electric arc furnace can be easily started and stopped on a regular basis, mini-mills can follow the market demand for
their products easily, operating on 24 hour schedules when demand is high and cutting back production when sales are lower.
SPE 138567 3

Appropriate process for Middle east and UAE

As natural gas is available in the countries in the middle east including the UAE, the DRI process which derives the carbon
required for reducing the Iron oxide from natural gas is the most suitable for production of Iron in this region. DRI can be fed to an
EAF to produce high grade steel. Among the gas based DRI processes, the one of the processes provides a significant CO2
production in near pure form (over 99% pure on dry basis) and is more capture friendly than the alternative processes; however it
should be noted that some other processes have lower CO2 emissions per tonne of DRI produced and are developing variations
that can yield part of the CO2 in pure form.. A continuous caster providing hot feed to the steel mill can reduce the energy
requirements and CO2 emissions from the reheating step. Based on the above, the present paper focuses on CO2 releases and
potential for energy recovery and CO2 capture from steel making process using DRI or scrap feed to an Electric Arc Furnace.

Potential CO2 streams in steel plants in UAE

As mentioned above, the main steps in steel making would be:

a) DRI Process.
b) EAF/Ladle furnace for steel making.
c) Continuous caster to hot feed the steel mill.
d) Steel mill.

DRI production

The DRI process produces reducing gas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide mixture) by steam reforming of natural gas. This
reducing gas is injected into a process gas loop which is then used to reduce the iron oxide pellets in a reduction chamber to
produce high quality DRI ( 2-3 % carbon). In addition to heat exchange between the inlet and outlet process gas streams from the
reduction chamber, a process gas heater fired by natural gas is required in the loop to heat the reducing gases to the required
temperature. In the process, the reducing components, i.e H2 and CO get converted into water and CO2. Water is removed by
condensation of process gas while CO2 is removed by washing with Amine. A slip stream of process gas is released to the
reformer furnace for use as fuel in the burners along with natural gas. The plant is designed to operate without the Amine based
CO2 removal system but at lower than the design capacity. The plant is normally designed with good heat recovery and does not
have any potential for more energy recovery. The CO2 is available mainly from three locations in the plant as follows:

a) A pure CO2 stream (over 99% on dry basis) from the Amine regeneration unit (approx 40-45 % of total recoverable
CO2).
b) The flue gas from reformer furnace that contains around 8-9% CO2. About 90% of this CO2 can be recovered (approx 30
% of total recoverable CO2).
c) The flue gas from process gas heater that contains around 8-9% CO2. About 90% of this CO2 can be recovered (approx
25 % of total recoverable CO2).

Process scheme for the DR plant and the Amine based CO2 removal system follows:
4 SPE 138567

Figure 2 Amine Plant for CO2 removal

Thermal Oxidizer
CO2 CO2 to
Process Gas
25,327 NCMH Reformer Stack

Condenser

Rich Solution
Lean Solution
102 ºC
890 m3/h at 45 ºC

Reflux

ECW KO Drum
Absorber ECW-Lean Solution
Column Heat Exchanger Stripper
Column

ECW

Lean Solution Pump Reflux Pump

Lean Solution Steam

80 ºC 60 ton/h
CO2 Rich
Recycle Gas

Rich Solution Lean Solution

70 ºC 120 ºC Reboiler
Rich-Lean Solution
Condensate
Heat Exchanger
SPE 138567 5

EAF

Most of the energy (about 90%) supplied to an electric arc furnace is carried in two streams. Offgas calorific and sensible energy
represents 36% of the total energy input while the hot steel contains 54% of the energy input (3). About 7% of the energy is lost in
the cooling water stream used to cool the sidewalls and roof. In operations utilizing high levels of chemical energy in the EAF, the
energy content in offgas can be much higher (50%) (3). Typical off gas composition would be H2 (5%), CO (35%), O2 (0%), N2
(40%), H2O (10%) and CO2 (10%). One problem with the heat in the offgas is that it has a cyclical variation and therefore design
of recovery system is more challenging.

Reheating Furnaces

Flue gas from reheating furnaces also contain from 9% to 15% CO2 although the amount of CO2 from this source is much lower
than that from the reformer furnace and the process gas heater in the DRI plant.

Lime plant

If in-house facilities are installed to produce Lime, this will yield some pure CO2 stream for capture.

Carbon Capture Ready Steel Mill

The CO2 capture ready plant is a plant which has provisions built in to include CO2 capture at a future date when the necessary
regulatory or economic drivers are in place. The aim of building plants that are capture ready is the avoidance of the risk of not
being able to put in capture facilities when they become essential or mandatory at a future date. In the context of Steel plants, the
developers of capture ready steel plants should take responsibility for ensuring that all known factors in their control that would
prevent installation and operation of CO2 capture have been eliminated.

The above might include:

• The study of options for CO2 capture retrofits and potential pre-investments.
• Inclusion of sufficient space and access for the additional facilities required in future.
• Evaluate technology options and decide on the appropriate technology for CO2 capture to used in the plant.

Consider possible future technology developments/improvements related to CO2 capture and make provision for accommodating
known/anticipated developments.

CO2 yield from a typical 2.8 MMTPA steel plant

Following are the typical CO2 yields from a gas based steel plant producing 2.8 MMTPA of liquid steel through the DRI/EAF
route.

S.No Source Concentration mol % Yield MMTPA

1 CO2 removal plant in DRI plant 99% 0.72
2 Reformer Flue Gases 9% 0.49
3 Process heater Flue Gases 9% 0.39
4 Reheat Flue Gases 9% 0.18
Total 1.78

Carbon Capture Ready Steel Mill

The CO2 capture ready plant is a plant which has provisions built in to include CO2 capture at a future date when the necessary
regulatory or economic drivers are in place. Building plants that are capture ready can reduce the risks and the additional costs of
retrofitting capture facilities when the same need to be installed.
6 SPE 138567

In the context of Steel plants, it is possible for the developers to make the steel plants capture ready by optimising processes and
plant layouts at design stage and making provisions to capture CO2 without reducing productivity or incurring additional operating
costs, in order to generate new revenue streams through commercial sale of CO2 when required.

The areas to be studied at design stage include:

• The study of options for CO2 capture, retrofits and any benefits of pre-investments.
• Identification of space requirements and making provisions for space and access for the additional facilities required in
future.
• Evaluate technology options and identify the appropriate technology for CO2 capture for the plant.
• Study use of available energy streams for the capture.
• Consider possible future technology developments/improvements related to CO2 capture and make provision for
accommodating known/anticipated developments.

Options for CO2 capture

As stated above, many of the CO2 streams from the DRI-EAF process contain CO2 in a mixture with other gases. Therefore, CO2
needs to be separated in a concentrated form for compression and further use in EOR or for sequestration. A part of the emitted
CO2 could be in a concentrated form which can be routed to the compression system directly.

One way to recover the CO2 from a DRI-EAF based steel plant will be to use Absorption processes for CO2 capture which utilize
a solvent such as Amine to absorb the CO2 from the waste gas stream and then release the CO2 in a concentrated form after
regenerating the solvent. This is called Post combustion capture technology.

The other option will be to enhance the capacity of the air separation in the steel plant and provide oxygen for combustion in place
of air. The use of oxygen eliminates Nitrogen from the waste gas streams and a relatively pure CO2 steam becomes available after
cooling and condensation of the water vapour present in these streams as a product of combustion. This is called Oxy fuel
technology.

The requirements for the above technologies are analysed further in the following section.

Post combustion capture technology

This option will require installation of a flue gas blower, a quench column and solvent absorber and pumps near each of the flue
gas sources for capturing the CO2 from the flue gas streams. Possibility of combining these facilities for adjacent sources can be
examined depending on the layout of the existing plant. For new steel plants under design, the possibility of locating the various
sources close to each other can be examined and implemented in the layout to allow collection of the flue gases in the future.
To improve the economics of CO2 capture, Rich solvent from different absorbers is normally pumped to a common location for
regeneration of the solvent. The regeneration facilities and associated utilities will need to be installed.

The regeneration process requires a considerable amount of heat. This heat is supplied in the form of steam. Therefore any studies
related to provision for post combustion CO2 capture needs to examine potential for heat recovery and steam generation in the
steel plant and opportunities for integrating energy recovery with CO2 capture need to be identified and provided for.

CO2 product blowers may be required for the pure CO2 stream from the solvent regeneration facility and the DRI plant to
transport the low pressure CO2 to the compression and dispatch facility.

CO2 compression and dispatch facility with required dehydration will need to be installed along with the required utilities.

CO2 capture from flue gas/waste gas streams in a steel plant based on natural gas fuel and DRI-EAF process will be of similar
quality as obtained in a boiler based power plant based on natural gas fuel and therefore challenges related to developing an
economic process for post combustion capture are the same and as listed below:
• Solvent resistance to oxygen and other combustion products like SOx and Nox.
• Specific energy consumption of the Solvent.
• Proper heat integration to improve overall economics.
SPE 138567 7

In summary, additional space and modifications required to implement this technology in an existing plant are as follows. Capture
ready plants need to include provisions for these if the Post Combustion CO2 capture technology is to be implemented in future.

Space requirements for post combustion capture

Space requirement needs to be checked for:

a) Capture Equipment near each flue gas source i.e Flue Gas blowers, Flue Gas quench/cooling equipment, Solvent
Absorbers, Solvent pumps and SOx removal equipment if applicable.
b) Solvent Regeneration Equipment including utilities.
c) CO2 compression facility including utilities.
d) CO2 product blowers if required.

‘b’ and ‘c’ can be on a separate plot near the steel plant while ‘a’ needs to be at the respective locations and ‘d’ , if required, needs
to be close to ‘b’.

Modifications to implement post combustion capture

Following modification will be required in an existing plant to implement Post combustion based CO2 capture.

a) Flue gas tie in and ducting to the Capture equipment.

b) Install piping to transport Solvent between the Absorbers and Regeneration facility.
c) Install piping to transport CO2 from product blowers to the Compression facility.

Making adequate provisions in the steel plant at design stage will help implement CO2 capture at a later date.

Oxy Fuel Technology

In Oxy fuel based CO2 capture, Oxygen will be used in place of air for combustion. Therefore this option will require increase in
the capacity of the Air separation plant to supply pure oxygen.

Oxy fuel technology has been used successfully in the reheat furnaces and annealing furnaces in steel plants mainly to improve
energy efficiency and to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. In this case, special flameless burners are provided to keep
the flue gas temperature within acceptable limits. The burners have a capability to draw and mix the flue gases within the furnace
with the products of combustion and therefore the combustion temperatures are significantly lower than what will be seen with
oxygen without this mixing effect. External CO2 recycle is not required for Oxy fuel combustion in reheat furnaces.

Oxy fuel technology is also being used for CO2 capture from boilers in power plants and in Gas turbines. For Gas turbine based
application, external CO2 recycle is normally required to keep the combustion temperatures within acceptable limits.

Theoretically Oxy fuel technology can be used in any furnace. However, details such as burner design, need for CO2 recycle etc
need to be examined for the specific application to confirm the feasibility of implementing Oxy fuel technology.

In an existing plant, the Air separation plant can be located at one location and Oxygen can be piped to the various combustion
equipment. As the flue gas streams will be at low pressure, the CO2 recycle blowers (if required) will need to be located near the
respective equipment. Further CO2 product blowers will be required to transfer the CO2 to a central location for compression and
dispatch.

As steel plants normally have an air separation plant, the Oxy fuel technology which has been successfully used in reheat furnaces
and in boilers provides the opportunity to increase the capacity of the same and recover the CO2 without installing the elaborate
post combustion capture and associated utility systems required in conventional steel plants designed based on use of air for
combustion/steel making process. In this case requirement of alternate supply/storage for oxygen needs to be considered to ensure
reliable Oxygen supply.
8 SPE 138567

In steel plants using natural gas as fuel and oxygen to support the combustion, the CO2 stream obtained can be sufficiently pure (
90-95 % CO2) to be directly used for EOR or sequestration. Hence additional post combustion capture facilities are not required.
However, due to air ingress through leakage in furnaces, some treatment will be required to remove the Oxygen in the CO2 stream
before it is sent for use in EOR.

The flue gas flow and heat lost with the same are lower in Oxy fuel based combustion and therefore the overall efficiency is
increased and fuel consumption and CO2 emissions are reduced while using Oxy fuel based technology.

In summary, additional space and modifications required to implement this technology in an existing plant are as follows. Capture
ready plants need to include provisions for these if the Oxy Fuel technology is to be implemented in future.

Space requirements for Oxy fuel Technology

Space requirement needs to be considered for:

a) Increased capacity of Air Separation plant including necessary utilities.
b) CO2 compression facility including necessary utilities.
c) Flue gas recycle blowers where required.
d) CO2 product blowers if required.
e) Provision for Oxygen removal from CO2 stream.

‘a’ and ‘b’ can be on a separate plot near the steel plant while ‘c’ and ‘d’ need to be at the respective locations. The utilities for Air
separation plant and CO2 compression facility may be integrated to improve the overall economics. Also, any heat recovery from
CO2 bearing streams may be integrated with the utilities required for the project to improve overall economics.

Modifications to implement Oxy fuel Technology

Following are the modification which would be required in an existing plant to implement Oxy Fuel based CO2 capture.
a) All burners to be checked/modified for new operation.
b) Implement Flue gas recycle in furnaces if required.
c) Install flue gas additional cooling and CO2 product blowers.
d) Install piping to transport Oxygen from the Air separation plant to different users.
e) Install piping to transport CO2 from product blowers to the Compression facility.

Conclusions
Carbon capture from a steel mill is not a mandatory requirement at present. The drive towards reducing the carbon foot print of
steel product is likely to provide necessary drivers, economic and/or statutory, at a later date to implement carbon capture in steel
plants. Therefore it would be prudent to design future steel plants carbon capture ready to allow implementation of carbon capture
facilities when required.

It is possible to consider and make provisions for CO2 capture in a steel plant by carefully studying the sources, the possible
options for capture and selecting the right process and technology and allowing for necessary additions at a later date. The studies
need to be carried out at early design stage to select the process scheme and utility options for steel plant and allowing adequately
in the plant layout for future requirements.

Although steel making industry has developed capture friendly processes like the ones yielding part of the CO2 from a DRI
process in pure form and the process using Oxy fuel in reheat furnaces and there is a potential to apply processes used in power
plants to steel plants, there is a considerable scope to develop and optimize carbon capture processes for steel plant applications
considering the heat integration opportunities.

References
1) Tracking Industrial Energy Efficiency and CO2 emissions: IEA book, 2007.
2) Business Weekly, August 2007.
3) Opportunities and technologies for energy recovery in mini-mills, Jeremy.A.T.Jones, Worley Parsons, Iron and Steel
Technology, February 2010.