SEWGS Integration in a DR-Process

Abstract

The iron and steel industry represents one of the most carbon intensive sector accounting for roughly 25% of CO2 emissions from the industrial sectors and 7% of total energy sector emissions. The aim of this work is to assess the techno-economic analysis of the integration of the SEWGS technology in the DRI/EAF process in order to reduce the carbon footprint of this steelmaking process. The analysis has been carried out taking real plant data from literature, and investigating possibilities of GHG mitigation by introducing carbon-capture technologies such as MDEA scrubbing or the SEWGS technology. The solution with the SEWGS technology integrated shows environmental and economic advantages with respect to the case in which the MDEA carbon capture section is adopted. A reduction of emissions near 90%, with respect to the BF/BOF route, can be reached with the implementation of SEWGS when a renewable electricity scenario is considered. In addition, the CCA of this solution, always in comparison with the BF/BOF route, is quite similar to the one of the base DRI/EAF plant. The integration of SEWGS technology thus represents a promising solution for the reduction of the carbon footprint of the DRI/EAF process and commercially viable in the near future considering that the DRI/EAF process is already globally commercialized.

Keywords: Direct Reduced Iron, SEWGS, CO2 mitigation, MDEA, carbon capture, steel industry