Australian mining firm BHP is to partner with India's Tata Steel to jointly study lower carbon technology for iron and steelmaking.
Blast furnace. Credit: junrong / Shutterstock
Credit: junrong / Shutterstock
The two companies say they intend to collaborate on ways of reducing the intensity of emissions of steel from blast furnaces via two priority areas; the use of biomass as an energy source and utilisation of carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) tech in steelmaking.
The partnership forms part of the two firms' push towards their climate change targets, as well as India's goal to be carbon neutral by 2070.
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The technologies that are due to be explored in the partnership have the potential to cut emissions intensity of steel mills by as much as 30%. The projects aim to demonstrate how abatements made to the process of blast furnace iron and steelmaking, which accounts for over 60% of Indian steel production, can reduce carbon intensity.
The two companies also committed to a "robust ongoing knowledge exchange", through which further collaborations, ecosystems and business opportunities in the steel value chain, and the research and innovation sectors in both India and Australia will be explored.
BHP’s Chief Commercial Officer, Vandita Pant, said: "The partnership with Tata Steel highlights the importance of collaborations in being able to successfully identify and implement emission reduction technologies in steelmaking, including by developing abatements that can apply to the existing blast furnace process to incrementally reduce its carbon emissions intensity."
She added that BHP can make a significant contribution to Tata's efforts, as well as those of the wider steel industry, and can help achieve India's carbon neutral goals, especially as the country is expecting to see strong growth in the sector over the next three decades, due to population growth and increased urbanisation.
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"India has invested heavily in the blast furnace route for steel production, and its crude steel output was 118Mt last year. It is, therefore, critical to innovate and demonstrate pathways to reduce emissions from the blast furnace, while alternative steelmaking pathways emerge and low carbon energy systems scale-up," added Pant.
"A greener steel industry will be integral for India’s growth and decarbonisation journey, and we intend to work hard with Tata Steel to enable this development and hopefully set a benchmark for others in the industry to emulate and learn from. Finding pathways to net zero for steelmaking is challenging and complex but we believe that by working with industry leaders like Tata Steel, together, we will find solutions more quickly to help reduce carbon emissions in steel production."
Speaking on the partnership, Rajiv Mukerji, Vice President, Group Strategic Procurement, Tata Steel, said: "The steel sector will play a critical role in achieving India’s net-zero commitment. Tata Steel is already working on several pilot projects focused on the development of deep decarbonisation technologies such as CCU, hydrogen-based steelmaking, use of biomass and other alternate steelmaking routes.
"We believe strategic collaborations are vital in paving the way for innovations to accelerate the deployment of breakthrough technologies at scale and therefore this partnership with BHP is an important step for us.
Read more: BHP & POSCO to jointly explore decarbonised steelmaking
Both companies have established several partnerships in recent years with the aim of reducing emissions in steelmaking, including POSCO, JFE Steel, HBIS Group and China Baowu, which together account for around 13% of global steel production.
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