Carbon capture offers low-cost steel emissions cut, finds study

Mumbai: Capturing and reusing emitted carbon could emerge as the lowest-cost solution for decarbonising the steel industry–one of the most carbon-intensive industries globally, a joint study by Climate Policy Initiative and Dastur Energy has said.

Enabling integrated steel plants in the country to adopt carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) may require an investment of $12-14 billion over the next 25 years, but it would still be significantly cheaper for steelmakers than using hydrogen or natural gas-based direct reduced iron (DRI) methods of producing steel, the study noted. India, the world’s second-largest steel producer, relies heavily on the blast furnace route, which accounts for over two-thirds of domestic steel production.

This coal-based process emits nearly 370 million tonnes of CO 2 annually, with 2.2–2.5 tonnes of CO 2 released per tonne of steel produced.


“CCUS is going to form an important decarbonisation lever in the steel industry,” said Pankaj Satija, executive vice president for corporate affairs at JSW Group. “JSW is currently evaluating such applications to find viable solutions through utilisation of captured CO₂ and studying the prospect of creation of hubs for transport and storage,” he said.

Of the $12-14 billion investment anticipated, about $200 million will be needed for early demonstration projects over the next five years, after which an investment of $2.53.0 billion will be needed over the next decade, the study said.
While the cost of producing crude steel will increase by $72-80 per tonne, it is still “considerably” lower than the cost push likely from hydrogen-based routes, it said.

“The CCUS technology is still a maturing global technology, and the volume that can currently be captured is only a fraction of what a company like SAIL emits,” Debabrata Dutta, executive director at Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) said. “But that said, CCUS continues to be one of the few viable pathways available today to address emissions that cannot be reduced through operational improvements alone.”

The government, while ambitious of making India a 300-million-tonne per year steel producing nation, is also pushing for lower carbon emissions.

Apart from the Green Steel Taxonomy, which was defined last year, the government has also initiated the National Mission on Green Steel to accelerate technology adoption across the sector.