The steel industry is not immune to the current and future challenges of climate change and the scarcity of available resources. Initiatives and developments to make production as climate-neutral and resource-conserving as possible are very popular. In line with the European Green Deal, the major steel players want to produce exclusively CO₂e-neutral steel by 2050 at the latest, thereby contributing to greater sustainability and a green economy.
However, such a fundamental transformation of our economy cannot be achieved without tapping into productive and sustainable energy sources. The conversion of sunlight into electrical energy using photovoltaics promises the greatest potential. A green approach per se, which should become even greener in the future - thanks to Green Steel, rollforming and Welser Profile.
At its core, steel is already an environmentally friendly building material due to its longevity and 100 % recyclability. Where it does make a significant impact in emissions is in the upstream production process. As the currently predominant process in steel production, the so-called blast furnace route makes this branch of industry by far the largest direct emitter of CO₂e making up around 10 % of all emissions worldwide, according to the findings of Austria's Climate Neutrality by 2040 study undertaken by the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology.
Depending on the process, up to around 380 kg of coal or coke are used to produce one ton of steel. The resulting CO₂e emissions are 1.7 tons of CO₂e per ton of crude steel. Complete emission recycling is impossible with this form of production. To avoid ending up in a dead end, the path toward sustainability needs to take a different route.
As part of their sustainability efforts, steel producers are increasingly looking to rely on hydrogen-based processes instead of traditional coal blast furnaces in order to improve their climate balance and create green steel. This new production method doesn’t affect the quality of the steel, but it does have an effect on the production-related CO₂e emissions.
Green steel refers to both CO₂e-reduced and CO₂e-neutral steel. As always, the difference is in the details. For the former, measures are taken in the production process resulting in a reduction in CO2 emissions. For the latter, these emissions are eliminated entirely. It should be noted that completely CO₂e-neutral steel production requires the complete abolition of the blast furnace route operated with fossil fuels and the covering of energy-intensive alternative production exclusively with energy from renewable sources. In this case, both hydrogen and green electricity need to be available in sufficient quantities, and at affordable costs.
Roll forming, also known as roll profiling, is a process technology for forming different steels into precise and high-quality cross sections. The combination of this flexible and efficient manufacturing process with the environmentally friendly material properties of steel has high potential for the development of sustainable products.
Traditionally steel was often bought as unprocessed bar stock and processed afterward by sawing, punching, lasering or filing, etc. With roll forming, on the other hand, these several process steps can be combined and a thin sheet metal strip is formed in such a way that it meets individual requirements. This not only speeds up the manufacturing process, but also saves resources and waste. Last but not least, this production method enables more efficient project planning and thus a further reduction in raw material waste and required components.
Steel stands for strength, stability and durability - material properties that promise a long service life for any construction project it’s used for. This long service life is an important first step towards careful and sustainable use of our valuable raw materials. A second important step is the full recyclability of steel. If the service life of a structure comes to an end after a long time, the materials used can be fed into a new product life cycle in a resource-saving manner by the scrap being melted down again into new steel.
We’ve already looked at the hydrogen-based production method of green steel above. Innovative industry giants such as Voestalpine or ThyssenKrupp are currently driving this development and are looking to make it ready for series production in the next few years. If this plan works, it would not only be a further step towards sustainable steel production, but also a quantum leap toward reducing steel’s Carbon Footprint.
Photovoltaics play an increasingly key role in the production of renewable energy, but staying on the path to completely clean energy transition means we can’t just think about the generation of electricity being climate-neutral: The construction of these systems also needs to be green. Finding the right substructure for photovoltaic (PV) systems is a huge part of this.
At Welser Profile, we see our work as part of a holistic, circular economy, where green steel is processed in a sustainable, functional way for different industries. We’ve set out the framework for this with the following actions and measures:
The efforts of leading industry giants, in connection with technical innovations for CO₂e reduction, give hope for transforming current climate-damaging production methods. As is often the case, however, overcoming one hurdle often leads right to the next. Even with the production of green steel technically being possible today, companies and national economies need to ask themselves where, and with what resources, the required hydrogen can be produced - as well as what new dependencies might arise from it. For a real energy turnaround, it will be crucial for Europe, as an industrial power, to become energy independent, and that means bringing photovoltaic production back to the EU.