U.S. Out Front in Decarbonization Debate

The global steel industry is one of the biggest culprits in the climate change debate, responsible for some 7 percent of harmful carbon dioxide emissions each year. Every ton of steel produced in 2018 released 1.85 tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Thus the steel industry is under enormous pressure to reduce its carbon footprint. Fortunately, U.S. steel producers are among the most CO2 efficient in the world, said CRU Analyst Ryan Smith in his remarks during the SMU Virtual Steel Summit last month.

The trend toward electric arc furnace production has driven decarbonization in the U.S.  “The amount of CO2 a facility emits, and the CO2 intensity of the steel produced, is directly proportional to the amount of carbon that enters a facility,” wrote Smith in a recent article. “One hundred percent scrap-based EAFs produce steel with the lowest CO2 intensity as the carbon inputs are mostly in the form of graphite electrodes, natural gas and small quantities of injection coal for slag foaming.”