Thursday 13 February 2020

New £1.2m study to explore ways of decarbonising the steel industry

A new £1.2 million research is to explore how the steel industry in the UK can be decarbonised within the next 30 years.

Scientists at the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield will develop new approaches that blend technology and policy, with the aim of eliminating the industry’s dependence on fossil fuels as the UK moves towards net zero carbon by 2050.

Steel manufacturing is a high carbon process, with every tonne manufactured creating around 1.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide, according to figures from the World Steel Association.

The grant is being provided by the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS), which is funded by UK Research and Innovation.

Professor William Gale, an energy expert at Leeds and the project’s principal investigator said: “The reality is the steel industry in the UK has to decarbonise but this has to be done sensitively otherwise there is a risk the industry will relocate to where the rules on carbon are more lax.

“Our challenge is to bring about real change without eroding the wafer-thin margins on which the industry operates.

“Steel is an important material so we can’t just stop manufacturing it. This project will bring together a range of experts: from scientists and engineers involved in researching alternative methods of production or ways to recover it from scrap – to policy and business experts analysing the policy initiatives and incentives needed for this change.”