Energy Efficiency in the Iron and Steel Industry

Task

XIV

Start date 2011-01-01

End date 2020-12-31

Recent developments

This Annex (Task) was finished in 2014. The technical report is available for download at the bottom of this page. One Task (Subtask) on professional education was performed in 2017-2018.  A video recording of one course delivery (Liège, Belgium 3-5 September 2018) is available. Watch the video at Vimeo! (Password: sapii)

During 2021 and 2022, efforts have been made to restart this Task.

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Previous activities in this Annex/Task

Annex Members

  • Sweden
  • Australia, Finland, France, Italy and Japan may join

Annex Manager

Mikael Larsson, Swerea MEFOS, Sweden

Description

This Task on energy efficiency in the steel industry is a continuation and a broadened approach on working on energy efficiency in the steel industry. It will focus on applied studies for resource efficiency, training and dissemination and method development.

So far, an activity in the area of training and dissemination has been approved by the IETS ExCo, involving an international course on process integration in steelmaking.

One of the biggest challenges for society is carbon dioxide emissions. Over the last 50 years, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere increased from 280 ppm to 400 ppm4,5, which is an important factor for the global temperature increase. The steel industry has made significant improvements in carbon efficiency through technical developments. Nevertheless the iron and steel industry still accounts for 6-7 % of the global CO2 emissions. To make further progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions there is an increasing focus on new technologies and new approaches to produce steel. The annex will have a dedicated activity area analyzing the feasibility, impact and integration of emerging technologies for resource efficiency.

The recently developed standard for model exchange and co-simulation is something that also should be introduced in the development of process integration. The use of Functional Mock-up Interface and Functional Mock-up Units enables a common model development and sharing. Today the development have been driven by the needs in the automotive industry but the standard have been introduced and can be found in almost all industry sectors. Aspects of process integration which are vital to develop in application to Industrial IT systems include:

  • Automation and control systems
  • Production planning
  • Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Working with Energy efficiency in industry encompasses a wide range of tools and approaches with the objective to optimize multiple processes or industries from a system perspective to achieve the most efficient ways in order to reduce costs and improve material and energy efficiency. The current Annex aims to continue the previous Annex (XIV) with major emphasis on one of the training, dissemination and applied studies for resource-, energy efficiency and CO2 emission minimization.

 Objectives and scope

The objective of the project is to formalize existing knowledge on Energy efficiency with a focus on practical application to improve energy and material efficiency in metallurgical industries. The main target audiences are technical professionals employed in industry and institutes and universities. This is achieved by:

  • Continuation and expanding of a network of experts involved in projects with the iron and steel industry and the use of Process Integration methods as a common denominator,
  • Bringing together and sharing information on the present state of the art as well as joint development of method and practical tools for systems optimisation with regard to energy and GHG emissions, methods enabling process model interconnectivity, multi domain, multi physics,
  • Developing methodologies, tools and dissemination for different stakeholder groups to increase acceptance of results and methodology.

Current Tasks/Subtasks

  • Training and dissemination
    An activity on international course on process integration in steelmaking is already being planned. First course delivery in Oct. 2017
  • Methodology development
    Development of modelling approach that allows for model interconnectivity and implementation in industrial IT environments
  • Applied Process integration studies on Energy efficiency, resource efficiency and greenhouse gas mitigation

Deliverables

The deliverables in the project will be the following:

  • Proceedings/summaries of yearly workshops
  • Professional education material and course/workshop

 

Previous work

Annex Delivieries

Technical report

Information about initial scope and work