The global steel industry is slowly embracing electric-arc furnaces, a cleaner alternative to the blast furnaces typically used to make steel, as detailed in a new report.
The global steel industry is slowly embracing electric-arc furnaces, a cleaner alternative to the blast furnaces typically used to make steel, as detailed in a new report.
Iron and steel production accounts for 7 percent of carbon emissions worldwide. Manufacturers burn heavily polluting coal in blast furnaces in the process of turning iron into steel. Electric-arc furnaces, which use electricity to generate heat, offer a low-carbon alternative to blast furnaces.
A new analysis from Global Energy Monitor, a San Francisco-based think tank, found that 43 percent of planned steelmaking capacity globally will rely on electric-arc furnaces, up from 33 percent last year. “Steel has moved from inertia to progress,” it said in its report.
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
An electric-arc furnace. (Photo Credit: Daniel Steelman via Flickr)
