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Fahad Alanazi

Professor Tim Waggoner

20.SU.ENG.1201.511 ENGLISH COMPOSITION II

25 July 2020

All about steel: What? How? Why?

One of the most important materials, steel, is used in the construction of modern

buildings, bridges, cars and appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators. Steel is

infinitely recyclable, 1000 times stronger than pure iron and is a key element for the

development of the modern society. Every day we use things and enter buildings that have steel

in their construction, however, have you ever wondered what is steel and how is it made? Steel

is an iron-carbon alloy that is made from iron ore mainly by either a blast furnace or direct

reduction. Currently, blast furnaces are the preferred route to produce steel, however, routes

based on direct reduction will overcome current market and environmental challenges,

becoming the preferred technology of the future.

The World Steel Association shows in its webpage that steel was invented in the 13th

century b.c. when early blacksmiths found out that the iron had stronger properties when it was

left in a charcoal furnace. The American Iron and Steel Institute defines steel as an iron-carbon

alloy with up to about 1.7 percent of carbon, this commercial iron is known by its flexibility at

particular conditions and contains less carbon than cast iron, which contains more than 2 percent

of carbon. The American Iron and Steel Institute states in its webpage that the most common

routes to make steel are: by using 2 furnaces, a blast furnace and a basic oxygen furnace,

(BFBOF) and our by using an electric reactor with steel scrap (SSEAF) or with direct reduction

of iron (DREAF).
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China is the world’s largest steel producer (Hasanbeigi et al., “Comparison” 109). China

fabricates more than 600 million metric tonnes of steel produced each year, while the United

States produces less than 100 million metric tonnes per year (Hasanbeigi et al., “Comparison”

109). The BFBOF route accounts for 65% of the steel produced in the world, being this route

the preferred one in China while routes involving an electric arc furnace route are the preferred

ones in the United States (Hasanbeigi et al., “Comparison” 108). To understand how these

processes work, information from companies and research institutes was investigated. An

overview of the most popular routes is shown in figure 1 (Hasanbeigi et al., “Alternative” 647).

Figure 1. Flow diagram of the most popular steel production processes (Hasanbeigi et al.,

“Alternative” 647). In blue: the BFBOF route, in purple: the SSEAF route, in orange: the

DREAF route and in green: the production of steel products.

The production of steel by the BFBOF route, shown in blue in figure 1, mainly requires

coke, iron ore and limestone as starting materials (American Iron and Steel Institute). U.S. Steel,

an American steel-making company founded in 1901, and Dr. Ali Hasanbeigi, an expert in the

area who obtained his doctorate at Berkeley and is currently the CEO of Global Efficiency

Intelligence, were the main sources of information due to their expertise. Both references agree
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that the steel production process from the beginning to end accounts with the following sections:

coking plant, pelletizing and sintering sections, iron and steel production, steel casting and final

preparations into products (Hasanbeigi et al., “Comparison” 110; U.S. Steel).

Beginning with the preparation of the starting materials: in the coke making section,

coal is crushed and heated without oxygen in an oven for around 20 hours to remove all the

components which are not coke, such as oil, tar, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur (American Iron

and Steel Institute). In pelletizing and sintering sections, iron ore is pre-treated to achieve a

certain size, shape and strength (American Iron and Steel Institute).

Iron ore consists of iron oxides (mixture of iron and oxygen) while steel is made of iron

and carbon, thus, to make steel it is necessary to remove the oxygen. Carbon from coke is the

common oxygen-removal agent used in the iron making section. Limestone is used to remove

impurities (U.S. Steel) and to facilitate melting in the furnace (Wang et al. 2325). The removal

of oxygen occurs in the blast furnace, in this furnace the temperature raises up to 2700 oF (U.S.

Steel) and molten iron with approximately 4 percent of carbon content is produced (Hasanbeigi

et al., “Alternative” 647). This step consumes the most energy in the process (Hasanbeigi et al.,

“Alternative” 646).

In the 14th century, the furnaces used to produce 1 ton steel per day from iron oxide

(American Iron and Steel Institute). But in the 1850s, Henry Bessemer invented the conversion

of molten iron into liquid steel at a large scale. This technology was called the Bessemer

Process, which consisted in blowing air through molten iron from the blast furnace to separate

impurities, reduce the quantity of carbon in the metal and form the steel (World Steel

Association). Currently, this is done in the Basic Oxygen Furnace and oxygen is used instead

of air. In this route, it is also common to include up to 30% of steel scrap in this furnace. The

product from this furnace is liquid steel (American Iron and Steel Institute).
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When liquid steel is produced, the steel casting, rolling and processing are the following

steps which coincide with any other route to make steel (see green in figure 1). In the U.S., most

of the steel products are shaped into sheets thus molds are used to solidify the steel into slabs,

which are then cooled down and stored. When it becomes the moment to process the slabs,

these are reheated in a heating furnace for their re-shape into plates, sheets or rolled coils

(American Iron and Steel Institute). Further steel processing steps include: cold rolling to make

the sheets even thinner, coating to protect the steel from corrosion, tinning to add a tin coat,

annealing to make steel easier to bend and tempering to add hardness (U.S. Steel).

Other popular production routes are: electric arc furnace with steel scrap (SSEAF) or by

direct reduction/electric arc furnace (DREAF). 2/3 of the steel in the United States is made

through the SSEAF and DREAF routes (American Iron and Steel Institute). The main

differences between the routes are the starting materials and the energy sources they use (World

Steel Association), since the BFBOF route uses iron ore, coal, natural gas and some electricity

while the SSEAF and DREAF use large quantities of electricity and either steel scrap or sponge

iron from direct reduction (Hasanbeigi et al., “Comparison” 108; Hasanbeigi et al.,

“Alternative” 647).

The SSEAF route takes advantage of one of the properties of steel: it is infinitely

recyclable. The starting material of this route is steel scrap, which is melted in the electric

furnace (American Iron and Steel Institute). However, there is not enough recycled steel in the

world to produce surpass the steel demand (World Steel Association), see figure 2, therefore it

is still necessary to make steel from iron ore, either by the blast furnace route or by direct

reduction (Hasanbeigi et al., “Alternative” 646). In the DREAF route, the oxygen from the ore

is removed in solid state instead of liquid state (Hasanbeigi et al., “Alternative” 647), thus an

oxygen-removing gas, such as natural gas, instead of solid coke is used (World Steel

Association). The natural gas is widely used as the common oxygen-removal agent for this
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process (Hasanbeigi et al., “Alternative” 647). This reactor substitutes the blast furnace and,

instead of producing melted metal, a material called “sponge iron” which contains between 85

percent and 95 percent of iron is produced (Hasanbeigi et al., “Alternative” 647). The sponge

iron is an iron-rich material that is commonly used to substitute part, or all, the scrap usually

used in the SSEAF route.

Figure 2. Global steel production and global scrap availability. (Ciftci; Forder and Walters)

In China, a research group at Tsinghua University, explained in their work that the steel

industry is the sector that consumes the most energy in the world (Wang et al. 2321). This

industry emits the most of the industrial CO2 into the atmosphere (Hasanbeigi et al.,

“Alternative” 646). These facts are also discussed by professor Hong Yong Sohn, an expert in

metallurgy engineering. Prof. Sohn is a professor of Metallurgy Engineering in the University

of Utah, who worked in a detailed comparison of the above mentioned steel making routes. A

research group in Germany also performed an analysis of these primary steelmaking

technologies (Weigel et al.), this group consisted of the vice-president of the Wuppertal Institute
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for Climate, Environment and Energy, Manfred Fischdick, and professor Petra Winzer from the

faculty of engineering at the University of Wuppertal in Germany.

Considering the requirements of energy for the steel production routes, all the sources

(Hasanbeigi et al., Sohn, Weigel et al. and Wang et al.) agree that the BFBOF route consume a

lot of energy. However, the energy consumption widely varies between references, being these:

between 13.0 and 14.1 GJ per ton of hot metal (Hasanbeigi et al., “Comparison” 109), 15.7 GJ

per ton of steel (Sohn 4) and 18.1 GJ per ton of crude steel (Weigel et al. 1071). The production

of steel by the SSEAF route, however, has a much lower consumption of energy, being

necessary between 2.1 GJ to 2.4 GJ per ton of liquid steel (Hasanbeigi et al., “Comparison”

109), however, this process is limited to the availability of steel scrap. If sponge iron is produced

to substitute steel scrap in the electric arc furnace (DREAF route), then 18.1 GJ per ton of steel

(Sohn 4) are necessary in the process, which is a higher energy requirement for the complete

process than the BFBOF route. This difference is due to the consumption of natural gas in the

direct reducer to make sponge iron and a higher consumption in the melting furnace. In contrast

to the electricity necessary to melt steel scrap, almost 3 times more energy, 5.9 GJ per ton of

steel (Sohn 4), are necessary to melt sponge iron in an electric arc furnace, because this material

has a large percentage of non-iron and non-carbon components that require more energy than

pure steel to be melted and removed (Sohn 4).

The steel production process generates CO2 emissions due to: direct carbon use, burning

fuels such as natural gas to heat the process and the consumption of electricity (Hasanbeigi et

al., “Alternative” 647). According to Prof. Sohn’s study, the BFBOF route emit 1.9 ton CO2

per each ton of steel while the DREAF route emits 1.1 ton CO2 per each ton of steel. Based on

the lower energy requirements and lack of pretreatment steps (such as direct reduction) of the

steel production process by steel scrap melting in electric arc furnaces, it is expected that the
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CO2 emissions of this process will be lower than 1.1 ton CO2 per each ton of steel. An overview

of the comparison of the steel making routes is shown in figure 3.

Figure 3. Energy requirements and CO2 emissions of the three popular routes. (Hasanbeigi et

al., “Comparison” 109; Sohn 4; Weigel et al. 1071)

Ivan Kurunov, who was Chief Expert of Ironmaking at Novolipetsk Steel Company in

Russia, explained is an academic publication that the BFBOF route is preferred due to its

economic benefits, popularity and energy advantages (335). However, there is a concern among

the steel makers due to the considerable reduction of the starting materials availability, such as

coal and gas, which are also used in other sectors, and also their increasing price in the market

(Kurunov 339). An additional concern is that the environmental regulations are getting stricter
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every year and the production of steel through the BFBOF route is very energy-intensive and

pollutant due to the use of carbon as oxygen-removal agent, however, even when other routes

are being developed, these options are not economically feasible neither productive enough at

the moment (Kurunov 335).

From the environmental point of view, the BFBOF steel production route produces most

of its CO2 emissions by removing oxygen from the ore with the coke, while in the DREAF

route, oxygen is removed with natural gas, and in the SSEAF route there are indirect emissions

due to the use of electricity. Therefore there will always be CO2 emissions unless the CO2 is

captured or the carbon and natural gas are replaced by hydrogen, producing water instead of

CO2 when oxygen is removed from the iron ore (Weigel et al. 1068). The European Union

requested to the steel industry to reduce their CO2 emissions, therefore both research institutes

and industry are working towards a solution to become more environmentally friendly, this

could be possible by the implementation of a direct reduction/electric arc furnace process that

consumes hydrogen from electrolysis of water with renewable electricity (Weigel et al. 1067).

This process would need approximately 13.1 GJ per ton of steel (Weigel et al. 1072), which

positions this option as the lowest energy consuming route after the production of steel by the

SSEAF route.

Therefore, it is clear that the best option to make steel is by recycling the already existing

steel scrap. However, since there the availability of steel scrap is not enough for the global

demand of steel, therefore steel from iron ore still needs to be produced. The selection of the

best steel-making route strongly depends on the economics, the availability of starting materials

and the environmental laws where the plant is located. From the financial perspective, Ivan

Kurunov indicated that the preferred route is the BFBOF because of its economic benefits. From

this statement it is possible to understand that the cost of coal and natural gas, which are the

largest source of energy in the BFBOF route, is usually lower than the cost of electricity.
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However, the DREAF route is the best option for an investment since it is better for the

environment and allows an easy transition from natural gas to hydrogen, which in the long-term

is the best choice.

In conclusion, steel is a widely used material for the development and growth of society.

It is completely recyclable, durable and much more stronger than pure iron. There are 3 main

ways to make steel: the BFBOF route, the SSEAF route and the DREAF route. A comparison

of each route was performed based on information produced by experts in the area. Overall, the

production of steel by SSEAF was proven to be the best option to make steel because it

consumes the least energy per ton of steel and emits the least CO2 per each ton of steel.

However, this route is limited due to the lack of availability of steel scrap. Therefore, the

DREAF route is definitely the best way to make steel in the future because it is less pollutant

and can facilitate the transition to use hydrogen to remove oxygen from the iron ore. By this,

water instead of CO2 will be released to the environment, thus reducing the global warming.
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Works cited:

American Iron and Steel Institute. www.steel.org/, accessed on 21 June 2020.

Ciftci, Baris Bekir. “The future of global scrap availability”. World Steel Association, 2 May

2018, www.worldsteel.org/media-centre/blog/2018/future-of-global-scrap-

availability.html

Forder, Bradley and Walters, Nicholas. “Global crude steel output increases by 3.4% in

2019”. World Steel Association, 27 Jan. 2020, www.worldsteel.org/media-

centre/press-releases/2020/Global-crude-steel-output-increases-by-3.4--in-2019.html

Hasanbeigi, Ali et al. “Alternative emerging ironmaking technologies for energy-efficiency

and carbon dioxide emissions reduction: a technical review”. Renewable and

Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 33, 2014, pp. 645-658.

Hasanbeigi, Ali et al. “Comparison of iron and steel production energy use and energy

intensity in China and the U.S.”. Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 65, 2014, pp.

108-119.

Kurunov, Ivan. “The direct production of iron and alternatives tot he blast furnace in iron

metallurgy for the 21st century”. Metallurgist, vol. 54, 2010, pp. 335-342.

Sohn, Hong Yong. “Energy consumption and CO2 emissions in Ironmaking and

Development of a Novel Flash Technology”. Metals, vol. 10, no. 54, 2020, pp. 1-22.

U.S. Steel. “STEEL: From Start to Finish”. Youtube, uploaded by Alliance for American

Manufacturing, 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l7JqonyoKA.

Wang, Ke et al. “Scenario analysis on CO2 emissions reduction potential in China’s iron and

steel industry”. Energy Policy, vol. 35, no. 4, 2007, pp. 2320-2335.
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Weigel, Max et al. “Multicriteria analysis of primary steelmaking technologies”. Journal of

Cleaner Production, vol. 112, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1064-1076

World Steel Association. www.worldsteel.org, accessed on 22 July 2020.