Tata Steel intends to acquire 25% of its energy from green sources

13 Oct 2023 , 02:52 PM

On its way to becoming net neutral on carbon emissions by 2045, Tata Steel, the oldest producer of the key infrastructure alloy in Asia, expects to meet at least a fourth of its energy needs through green energy by FY30.

Rajiv Mangal, vice president for safety, health, and sustainability at Tata Steel, told ET that the company intends to accomplish this at its factories all throughout the nation using a combination of hydrogen injections and renewable energy sources like solar and wind.

In order to cut carbon emissions by 7–10% for every tonne of crude steel produced, the business successfully injected hydrogen at one of its blast furnaces in Jamshedpur earlier this year.

‘We wanted to test hydrogen because it is expensive and dangerous to carry hydrogen. Thus, we wanted to be certain. We are considering either a 15 tonne per day hydrogen plant or having someone else supply it to us now that our anxieties are over, Mangal said.

‘The cost of hydrogen will not be less than $5 to $6 per kg on the market. We need it to be in the neighbourhood of $1 to be economically feasible in a steel mill. Therefore, hydrogen technically has the ability to fix the issue, but not financially,’ he stated.

One of the carbon-intensive industries in the world, the production of steel is responsible for 7-9% of total carbon emissions. How to produce steel in a more environmentally friendly manner is a topic of discussion that is spreading throughout the industry. This involves using scrap to make steel and switching to renewable energy sources in place of traditional energy sources.

Additionally, Tata Steel and Tata Power have a renewable energy agreement that will be operational by FY25. This will apply to energy sources including solar, wind, and others.

In addition, the steel giant is preparing a pilot at its Kalinganagar plant to produce syngas that can take the place of coke in blast furnaces. By the end of February, the pilot should be prepared.

‘It is an R&D project where we are using all the waste in the plant, including plastic to generate syngas, and it will be fed into the blast furnace as a replacement of coke,’ Mangal explained.

The company will obtain the scrap required for it from its collection and recycling hub in Rohtak, which currently processes roughly 40,000 tonne of scrap each month. The company has also announced the establishment of an electric arc furnace plant in Ludhiana, Punjab.

Tata Steel intends to build two additional comparable facilities, one in each of the country’s southern and western regions.

In addition, the business will construct two more electric arc furnaces next to these facilities.

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