Report on resources for the steel industry. prepared by ESTEP's WG4

Transcription

1 Report on resources for the steel industry prepared by ESTEP's WG4 Jean-Pierre Birat 1, Jean-Sébastien Thomas 1, Pete Hodgson 2, Philippe Russo 1, Valentina Colla 3, José Ignacio Barbero 4, Borja Peña 4, Hermann Wolfmeir 5, Enrico Malfa 6 1 ArcelorMittal, France 2 Tata Steel, United Kingdom 3 SSSA, Italy 4 Tecnalia, Spain 5 voestalpine, Austria 6 CSM, Italy September 2012

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3 Table of contents Draft of report on resources prepared by ESTEP WG4 1 Table of contents 3 Introduction 5 References (1) 6 Part 1 Analysis of scarcity and criticality of raw materials in the Steel sector 7 Status of primary raw materials for the Steel sector 9 New mines in Europe 10 Steel companies integrating vertically 11 Is ore quality changing? 12 Alloying elements used by the Steel sector 13 Other resources used by the Steel sector 16 References (2) 16 Raw materials for other Process Industry segments 19 References (3) 19 Part 2 Material efficiency in the Steel sector 21 Introduction to part 2: materials efficiency in the Steel sector 23 References (4) 26 Reduce 27 References (5) 29 Reuse of steel 31 Recycling (material to same material) 33 Reuse of residues and industrial ecology synergies 35 Appendix: short monographs on alloying elements 39 Aluminum 39 Events, Trends, and Issues: 39 World Smelter Production and Capacity: 39 Boron 47 Chromium 50 Copper 59 Lead 63 Manganese 68 Molybdenum 71 Nickel 76 Niobium 84 Silicon 90 Sulfur 94 Titanium 98 Vanadium 102 Zirconium 106 3

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5 Introduction Access to resources and particularly to raw materials has always been a strategic issue - from the sourcing of flintstones in the Paleolithic until that of scarce "rare earths" today. Indeed, a number of important issues for the long term come up where raw materials are concerned. Security of supply is a concept that has its roots in military strategy and which has been adopted in the civil discipline bearing the same name. However, in a global world economy, where international trade is one of the drivers of growth, this is not necessarily always a relevant matter except if a risk of scarcity comes up. Scarcity can be understood in two different ways: as a long-term issue, related to the finite nature (finitude) of the planet, a concept first put forward by the Club of Rome with respect to fossil fuels in 1968 [1], but also as a short-term, conjunctural issue, which leads to price fluctuations. There is more to the matter of resources than simply security of supply and scarcity. Indeed, raw materials are part of value chains, which need to remain robust, time in and time out. This sheds a new light on the matter of security of supplies and correlatively of logistics: for example, in Northern regions of the world, freezing of lakes, rivers or seas stops ore shipping in the winter time and creates a seasonal discontinuity of supply, a temporary scarcity to which local players have learned to adapt. There are also temporality issues, like the critical time of opening up a new mine or for searching for new deposits. Scarcity is thus a geopolitical, time-dependent, adaptative issue: short and long-term issues are somewhat blurred. Long-term scarcity has probably been more discussed than short-term scarcity, especially in the identification of "critical materials". Short-term issues fall rather in the area of economic or even business discussions. Access to resources is not simply related to raw material supply but also to their demand. Demand is controlled by the level of economic activity, by the intensity of material use, the amount of "reuse" and of recycling and by material efficiency. The European Institutions have recently joined the debate about access to resources in Europe with powerful initiatives 1 and roadmaps [2, 3, 4, 5, 6], which are likely to generate an abundant literature. All the issues already pointed out are emphasized, i.e. energy, raw materials, material flows and particularly reuse and recycling, materials substitution, but also externalities like biodiversity and ecological services or water. Thus, resources are analyzed in a generic way and how any particular material is impacted has been left for future work. The point of the present communication is to review the status of steel, as analyzed by a permanent working group of the Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP), the Planet or WG4 working group, of which the authors are members. It will serve as a roadmap for the strategic analysis of ESTEP. The argument to be developed for steel is simple. While resources in terms of primary raw materials (iron ore and coal) are not scarce nor likely to become so in any foreseeable future, the issue of access to raw materials is not void as short term issues may create large price fluctuations and force players in the field to adjust their strategy to accommodate this kind of business risk. A slightly different story might have to be told regarding alloying elements, where tension on prices may reflect some short term scarcity. On the other hand, secondary raw materials constitute a growing proportion of raw material feedstock, as the economy is on its way towards a closed-loop society, a transition which needs to be carefully prepared. Indeed, a paradigm shift from a "hunters-gatherers" economy to an industrial ac- 1 "Resource efficiency was recognized as critical for further economic development in the EU and became a focus of one of the seven flagship initiatives within the Europe 2020 Strategy" 5

6 tivity will have to take place. All these issues will be reviewed below. This work is a follow up and an extension of documents already prepared and published by ESTEP's WG4 [7, 8]. References (1) 1 D. Meadows, D. Meadows, J. Randers, W. Behrens. Limits to Growth, 1972, Universe Books 2 REPORT on an effective raw materials strategy for Europe (2011/2056(INI)), A7-0288/2011, the European Parliament, Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, Rapporteur: Reinhard Bütikofer, A resource-efficient Europe Flagship initiative under the Europe 2020 Strategy, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the council, the European economic and social committee and the committee of the regions, Brussels, COM(2011) 21, On the Progress of the Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, Brussels, , Communication from the commission to the European Parliament, the council, the European economic and social committee and the committee of the regions, SEC(2011) 1068 final 5 SPIRE, Sustainable process industry, European Industrial Competitiveness through Resource and Energy Efficiency, Making raw materials available for Europe's future wellbeing, proposal for a European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, COM(2012) 82 final, 29/02/ J-P. Birat, J-S. Thomas, L. Brimacombe, V. Colla, D. Schmidt, F. Verniory, K. Linsley, S. Oliver, E. M. Dias Lopes, The sustainable use of resources in the European Steel Industry, ESTEP, J-P. Birat as chair and rapporteur for ESTEP WG4 (Planet), A short roadmap addressing the strategy of the steel industry in the fields of sustainability, energy, CO 2 and environment - as an example of an Energy Intensive Industry, ESTEP,

7 Part 1 Analysis of scarcity and criticality of raw materials in the Steel sector 7

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9 Status of primary raw materials for the Steel sector Iron is one of the major chemical components of the planet and of the earth crust with, as a result of geological processes, iron ore being ubiquitous all over the globe [9]. Reserves are estimated by the USGS [10] at 80 Gt of iron contained (170 Gt of ore), while resources are estimated at 230 Gt (> 800 Gt of crude ore) 2. With a production of Gt of crude steel in 2011, reserves and resources represent respectively 52 and 150 years of production at this level. Iron ore is thus not scarce and this justifies statements made regularly, for example by the Steel Committee of OECD, that "in spite of temporary scarcity of raw materials, there are sufficient worldwide reserves to satisfy future demand" [11]. Figure 1. Iron ore mines in the world (Raw Materials Group, 2011) The other major raw material for making steel is coal. Reserves were estimated in 2010 at 860 Gt, while 5.8 billion tonnes of hard coal and 953 million tonnes of brown coal were used worldwide in 2008 for all applications 3 [12, 13]. Reserves are even larger than iron ore's (160 years). As sensitive and questionable as these various estimates might be, because the concepts of resource and reserve raise as many questions as they purport to answer, the conclusion that there is no scarcity issue for raw materials in the steel sector remains solid. In the short term, this balance between supply and demand changes with new mines being opened, old ones closed or with other events, such as flooding of coking coal mines or availability of shipping vessels, strong fluctuations in demand due, for example, to the economic crisis started in 2008, etc. The outcome is prices, which change quickly and by large amounts and thus are considered as volatile. This is a concept related to an immediate scarcity, which determines market prices, as opposed to the concept of a strategic scarcity, which relates to the long term. To accommodate this price volatility and some of the other strategic issues expressed by the EU roadmap and to leverage on them to create business opportunities, three main initiatives have been launched: 2 as an illustration of the dynamic nature of such estimates, resources in 1984 were estimated at 290 Gt and reserves (recoverable iron) at 103 Gt. 3 with a 4.9 % growth since

10 exploration for iron ore has been actively restarted in Europe, especially in Scandinavia, and the outcome has been a large number of new mines [14], to come on stream fairly soon. In parallel, old mines, which had been abandoned, have been reopened [15]. The issue of local sourcing and thus of security of supply is thus finding some practical answers. some steel companies are reversing the trend of sticking to their steelmaking core business, which led to mines being sold away in the 1990s, and are now re-integrating their business with upstream activities. ArcelorMittal has thus engaged into a program of returning to the Mining business with the objective of securing up to 70% of its own ore needs in the future. Today, ArcelorMittal produces 32% of its own ore needs, sells some of the production on the international market and has secured new iron ore and coal mines concessions in Canada and Liberia, which will eventually bring it close to its target [16]. ArcelorMittal has now reached the level of being the 3 rd world producer of iron ore, thus in effect introducing a wedge among the historical largest miners, Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. sourcing iron ore from new mines raises a number of issues in terms of ore quality (iron content, impurities like acid gangue, phosphorus, sulfur, arsenic, antimony or volatile elements, granulometry (more fines) and of logistics such as access to the mines, to export harbors and ocean shipping. A rule of thumb states that new resources of high quality ore are hard to reach and that easy to reach ones are of lower quality [11]. New mines in Europe Figure 2. Nordic mining projects (Raw Materials Group, 2011) [17] Scandinavia is experiencing a mining boom, which leverages on the rich resource base of metallic ores in Scandinavia, iron but also nickel, lead, zinc, Platinum Group Metals (PGMs), aluminum, copper, and even diamonds. The resource is estimated at 3.3 Gt. The region is already the European leader in the sector. The infrastructure, regarding logistics, knowledge-base, talents and work force, is excellent [14]. The projects are presently at all stages of development. Middle range projections are for a doubling of iron ore production within 10 years (as a reference, LKAB produced 26 Mt of finished products in 2011, mostly pellets). 10

11 Resource (Mt) Grade (% Fe) Category System Owner KIruna Reserve Jorc LKAB Sydvaranger Reserve Jorc Northern Iron Kiruna Area Resource Jorc Scand. Res. Malmberget Reserve Jorc LAKB Kaunisvaara Reserve Jorc Northland Rana Reserve? L. Nissen Ruotevare Resource Jorc Beowulf Grängesberg Reserve Non Jorc Grängesberg Iron Leveäniemi Reserve Jorc LKAB Hannukainen Resource Jorc Northland Kallak North Resource Jorc Beowulf Figure 3. Iron projects in Scandinavia [14] Steel companies integrating vertically Vertical integration between steelmaking and mining activities is a worldwide trend (see figure below). Market economies CIS China Total Figure 4. Vertical integration in the world steel sector (% of total world iron ore production) [14] ArcelorMittal is probably the steel company which is the most advanced in this strategic move. The 75 % target of sourcing iron ore from their own mines amounts to substantially achieving selfsufficiency. Business-wise, the ArcelorMittal mining segment reported 1H11 EBITDA of $1.4bn based on 12.9 Mt of iron ore and 2.4 Mt of coal shipped at market prices (internally and externally) i.e. about 25 % of the group's EBITDA in Present resources are estimated at 11 Gt and reserves at 4.3 Gt. A new mine opened up in Liberia in 2011; the next one, in Baffinland, will start up in

12 Figure 5. ArcelorMittal Mining assets portfolio Figure 6. ArcelorMittal Mining assets portfolio Is ore quality changing? In the 1980s, Europe changed from local sourcing of iron ore to internationally traded ore, thus from low grade, sometimes phosphorus-rich ores such as "minette" from French Lorraine, to high grade almost pure hematite. Ore from Scandinavia, especially the very pure magnetite from Kiruna, was the major exception to this general trend. The trend setters have been Japan and somewhat later Korea and the move to high grade ore has been part of a major paradigm shift in ironmaking, which in- 12

13 cluded the generalization of strand sintering, a major improvement in Blast Furnace reliability and operating ratios, an increase in size and other changes that turned this reactor into a the high productivity tool that is the standard in the best operated steel mills in the world today. The new Steel Mills that sprung up during the growth of emerging countries reproduced this "best technology" model, but, at the same time, other regions than Europe in the world kept using lesser quality ores various grades of hematite, magnetite and goethite, in North America, China and India. The "haute cuisine" diet of European Steel Mills may now be over and a return, for part of the furnace charge, to lower quality ores may become a necessity, due to the scarcity of high grade ore in the sense at least of immediate scarcity, as translated into prices. Mines of high grade ores are still being opened, like the Liberia Iron Mining site of ArcelorMittal (cf. Figure 6), but the trend back to the less concentrated, more abundant ores in the earth crust is probably inevitable. This will mean more preparation of the ore at the mine and possibly at the Steel Mill as well, but also, more alumina, silica and other components, which deteriorate value-in-use (cost of ownership), in the sinter or pellet feeds. This may also mean mediocre operating ratios in the Blast Furnace, like higher RAR (Reducing Agent Ratio), or the need for more complex hot metal treatment (HM "pretreatment", prior to refining) or even steel refining, and, eventually, higher environmental footprint like higher CO 2 emissions per ton of steel, eventually a trade-off between value-in-use and market value. Work on the consequences of a shift in ore quality should address the following issues: ore preparation (mineral dressing) of material from typical new mines operation of a blast furnace with lower quality ore re examination of hot metal pretreatment in this new raw material context optimization of the balance between ore quality and value in use, between ore treatment and hot metal and steel treatment Alloying elements used by the Steel sector Figure 7. Critical rare earth elements (REE) in the short and long term, with the definitions of these terms given in the figure Steels use a broad range of alloying elements, in small (micro-alloyed steel), medium (low-alloy steels) or large concentrations (alloy steels). Carbon steels also contain alloying elements which are always present in the background composition and are sometimes simply called additions, such as manganese, silicon or aluminum. Finally, tramp elements are alloying elements present in small con- 13

14 centrations, which are usually considered as detrimental to steel quality; some elements can be considered alternatively as alloying or tramp elements, depending on the context, like copper for example. General statements made with respect to material scarcity are summarized in Figure 7 for rare earths and in Figure 8 and Figure 9 for all elements. Rare earths are not a significant issue in steel production and none of the elements of importance for steel are shown as demonstrating a critical risk of supply in these analyses (e.g. a supply risk>>2). Figure 8. the "14 critical" elements in terms of scarcity as identified in the USA [18]. To investigate the issue at a finer scale, a series of monographs has been prepared, mainly from [19, 10], where most of these elements are described (Al, B, Cr, Cu, Pb, Mn, Mo, Ni, Nb, Si, S, Ti, Va, Zr) and analyzed in terms of use, production, pricing, resource and sourcing. The point was to make a statement on their availability and to identify which ones, if any, could be classified as scarce in a long-term, strategic sense. The detailed information is given in a separate appendix. Regarding long term scarcity, most of these elements are abundant and should be able to meet the demand for them in "any foreseeable future", at least as it is expressed today in terms of use. These are: Al, S, Si, Mo, Pb, Cu, Zr, B, Cr, Mn, Nb, Va. There might be a sourcing issue related to manganese, and, indeed, steel producers consider manganese as one of their major raw materials, side to side with iron ore and coal [12]: this is true before taking on board the Hadfield family of high manganese alloys, which are being investigated here and there [20, 21, 22], something that might eventually raise the level of the concern. 14

15 Figure 9. Critical materials in the EU [23] Abundant reserves and resources do not mean that a perfect balance between supply and demand is achieved and, indeed, prices of some of these alloying elements have been volatile, showing on the one hand that short-time supply issues do exist, while speculation on raw materials may explain another part of the phenomenon. There might be some worries about availability regarding Ni and Ti, although the issue is open: these metals are used for making high value alloys beyond steels (Ti alloys, super alloys and high-end stainless steels), and they are being applied as well for non-metallurgy purposes (e.g. TiO 2 ); they are extracted from ores in long, complex and costly processes. They are thus considered as highly strategic in terms of sourcing and identification of new resources and opening of new mines are high stake geopolitical issues, in which business but also governments are involved. Finally, no alloying element has been identified as highly critical in terms of long term scarcity, a point that was not obvious at the onset of this work. Concerning the few elements used by the steel sector as alloying elements, which show a risk in terms of long term scarcity, i.e. Ni, Ti, Ce, La and Te, efforts to reduce the risks that they raise should be conducted in the following directions: improve the evaluation of the risk and of its probable evolution develop alternative alloys to those using these critical elements; this is the case, for example, for free machining steels using Te, where S or Se have already been investigated, but more work might be needed; this is also the case for stainless steels, where lower Ni, higher Mn alloys have been developed in emerging countries and probably need more work Regarding Ti and Ni, transversal investigations on resources and reserves should be conducted including the steel, titanium and nickel sectors Efficiency in supply and recovery of strategically important materials should address the following issues: which alloys (and how much of them) are used in steelmaking and for what purpose? What happens to these materials at the end of life of products and what strategies can be adopted to enhance their recovery? 15

16 Other resources used by the Steel sector Refractory materials are also an importance resource that the steel sector calls on. Refractory materials are minerals, the availability of which, in a general way, is not in question. However, some very special minerals may become scarce in the short term, as the recent price evolution of some of them shows clearly [24] 4, for example low-iron content bauxite and zirconia. As a long-term a scarcity issue is very unlikely, countermeasures consist on the one hand in waiting for market mechanisms to correct for this distortion, and, on the other hand, in making sure that no oligopoly is blocking the search for new resources. Figure 10. Evolution of the price of some refractory materials over the last 15 years Intelligence regarding the dynamics of prices in these niche markets should be gathered and analyzed regularly. Logistics is also a resource, which can be analyzed in terms of scarcity [8]. Scarcity in this case can refer to roads, or railroads or ships, etc.: one can in principle add to the existing stock, but up to a point (law of diminishing returns), because of cost, of availability of resources (space), of competition with other goods that also need being ferried around, of energy or carbon footprint, etc. [25]. For example, the acidification and the eutrophication potentials are mainly driven by the transportation of raw materials [25], thus by logistical matters: note that the carbon footprint, in this case, is not the best yardstick, as it would be for consumer goods. Building knowledge about logistics as a resource and about its optimization should be sought. References (2) 9 JP. Birat, Alternative ways of making steel: retrospective and prospective, Centenaire de la Revue de Métallurgie, Paris, le 9 décembre 2004, La Revue de Métallurgie-CIT, Novembre 2004, Mineral Commodity Summaries, US Geological survey, January 2012, p.85, 198 p., 11 OECD Workshop on Steelmaking Raw Materials Dec 2011, OECD Conference Centre, Paris, 5 December Survey of Energy Resources World Energy Council, World Energy Council, 2010, 618 p. 4 The speaker actually implied that scarcity in the case of bauxite was the result of speculation. 16

17 13 D.J.C. Taylor, D.C. Page, and P. Geldenhuys, Iron and steel in South Africa, J. S.Atr. Ins!. Min. Metal/., vol. 88, no. 3., Mar pp M. Ericson, The geography of steelmaking raw materials - policy implications, OECD Workshop on Steelmaking Raw Materials, OECD Conference Centre, Paris, 5 December 2011, 15 JP. Birat, Personal communication 16 Joe Mathews, Mining activities at ArcelorMittal ( ), OECD Workshop on Steelmaking Raw Materials, OECD Conference Centre, Paris, 5 December Committee on Critical Mineral Impacts of the U.S. Economy, Committee on Earth Resources, National Research Council, Minerals, Critical Minerals and the U.S. Economy, the National Academies Press, 2008, 264 p Olivier Bouaziz, David Barbier, Philippe Cugy and Gerard Petigand, Effect of Process Parameters on a Metallurgical Route Providing Nano-Structured Single Phase Steel with High Work-Hardening, ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATERIALS 2012, 14, No. 1-2, O. Bouaziz,* C.P. Scott and G. Petitgand, Nanostructured steel with high work-hardening by the exploitation of the thermal stability of mechanically induced twins, Scripta Mater. (2009), doi: /j.scriptamat O. Bouaziz, S. Allain, C.P. Scott. Cugy, D. Barbier, High manganese austenitic twinning induced plasticity steels: a review of the microstructure properties relationships, Current Opinion in Solid State and Materials Science 15 (2011) Critical raw materials for the EU, The ad-hoc Working Group is a sub-group of the Raw Materials Supply Group and is chaired by the European Commission, Version of 30 July P. Dahlmann, R. Fandrich, H.B. Lüngen, Steelmaking in Europe, innovative, efficient, challenging, Clean Steel 8, Budapest, May J.P. Birat, J. Borlée, A.L. Hettinger, F. Saunier, Clean steels and clean steelmaking in Europe, Clean Steel 8, Budapest, May

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19 Raw materials for other Process Industry segments Raw materials issues are sector specific and a detailed discussion related to each process industry segment would be necessary, which falls however outside of the ambition of this document. If one restricts the scope to structural materials, the general picture is however the same as steel's [26, 27]: short-term scarcity driving prices up or down is obviously there, like in most businesses, but long-term scarcity is not an issue. This is clearly the case of metals (aluminum, zinc, copper), of cement, of glass. Of course, there might be an issue with high-value metals like super alloys or titanium alloys, as mentioned when these elements were discussed as alloying elements in steel. Plastics, which are deeply related to oil, a feedstock that is also a major energy resource, raise slightly different issues. On the one hand, the scarcity of oil in the long term, namely the issue of peak oil, has been at the core of a lively debate and a majority of experts predict this event as to be taking place in the present or within a very few years. The connection between peak oil and plastic production, however, is not completely rigid, as changes in energy futures may make oil for plastics more readily available. On the other hand, bio-plastics are being developed and may eventually take enough market share to alleviate the issue of raw materials scarcity. Wood is also a special material, sourced from bio-resources. Bio-resources are produced on land which competes with uses other than industrial applications, especially the production of food and in a more general way, external to the economic realm, with ecological services. The finite nature of land is thus a threat to the availability of wood in the long term: a resource issue is thus likely there in the long term. This is rue as well of ecological services and these include those related to water. References (3) 26 J-P. Birat, M. Chiappini, C. Ryman, Cooperation and competition among structural materials, conference to group V of IVA, Stockholm, 8 February Materials Roadmaps to meet energy challenges, White Book, a report on the results and recommendations of the International Summit World Materials Perspectives (WMP), February 2012, Materalia, Institut Jean Lamour & McKinsey & Company, 43 p. 19

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21 Part 2 Material efficiency in the Steel sector 21

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23 Introduction to part 2: materials efficiency in the Steel sector To be complete, a discussion on resources for a material sector like steel, needs to incorporate a vision of the close-loop society towards which the sector is moving, pushed and pulled by external and internal drivers. Today, for example, steel produced in the world originates for 70% from primary raw materials, thus mainly from the iron ore-based Blast Furnace or Integrated Steel Mill route, and for 30% from secondary raw materials, thus mainly from the scrap-based Electric Arc Furnace route. The distribution is 40/60 % in the US and 60/40 % in the EU. North America is thus more advanced in the direction of a close-loop economy relative to steel, while Europe lies below but above the world's average. The long term trend is towards more secondary raw materials being used: a 100% sector based on scrap is unlikely to ever happen, but a target of %, which corresponds to the present level of recycling of steel at its end-of-life, is possible. This will happen when steel production peaks, something that will happen when population or GDP peak, thus a long-term time horizon at the end of this century or possibly beyond [28]. 0,80 scrap ratio (%) 0,70 0,60 0,50 0,40 0,30 0,20 0,10 0, Figure 11. forecast of scrap used in producing steel in Europe (%) [ 28 ] The waste (management) hierarchy [29] proposes a classification of processes for handling waste that has also merits in discussing issues related to materials and sustainability. A shorter version of it is the 3R rule, where R's stand for Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (cf. Figure 12). Figure 12. The waste Hierarchy and the 3R rule The "greenest" way to handle materials, and particularly structural materials, is certainly "reduce", meaning that materials should be used more intensively, i.e. in lesser quantities and for longer lives. 23

24 This is what is sometimes called dematerialization, although this expression has many meanings which may somewhat confuse the issue. Other players speak of a lean economy and still others of ungrowth, negative growth or slow-time economy. The next approach is "reuse", i.e. the direct reutilization of final consumption goods, in all (like a second-hand automobile) or in parts (like a second-hand car engine), without complex re-manufacturing. Next comes recycling, where a material is reused in a completely new application: thus a beverage can may be recycled in a car engine, by going through collection, scrap handling, remelting in an EAF steelshop, automotive plant, etc. In terms of volume, measured in a Material Flow Analysis (MFA) - which incidentally does not account for "reduce" - recycling is by far the most important contributor. In vernacular language, however, recycling has various definitions, which do not all match the intuitive understanding of steel players. Recycling steel to make steel is the basic concept, i.e. material to same material recycling. Reusing a plastic as a feedstock for new plastic (feedstock recycling) is also sometimes called recycling, although the loop is closed further upstream in the material production route. Reusing a waste or residue, for example blast furnace slag used as a substitute to clinker, may also be called recycling (residue recycling). The drivers behind the evolution towards a close-loop society are numerous and the dynamics of this trend is complex. It would be naive to picture it only as the consequence of the drive towards sustainability. On the other hand, sustainability is often the consequence of other trends and drivers: for example, the switch from flintstone to metals did not occur because of material scarcity, but because mankind went through a number of major shifts in technological episteme in the Neolithic and ended up discovering metals. The recycling of steel has been a lively business practice long before Ms Brundtland [30] popularized the concept of sustainable development: the key reason is that scrap is a commodity which has an economical value because it competes with iron ore to feed iron units to the steel and foundry sectors. Its price is high enough for the "scrap mine" to be exploited until normal business conditions. The results is actually that the recycling rate of steel is very high (80 to 85% at the end of life of steel-containing goods) and that the production of iron ore ends up complementing scrap production, rather than the contrary. On the other hand, prices are very volatile and no other sector speaks more of scarcity than the scrap sector, even though scarcity in its long-term meaning has never materialized and is unlikely to ever do, in any foreseeable future. In all cases, a full life cycle approach should be adopted to assess the overall benefits of a particular strategy, in order to ensure that impacts would not be worsened or shifted to another phase of the life cycle. The new British Standard, BS8905 Sustainable Use of Materials, provides guidelines on how to make such assessments across the three pillars of sustainability. A list of other drivers follows: issues related to the disposal of domestic waste: minimizing domestic waste has been a priority of city councils. Curbside collection is the flagship program deployed in all countries of Europe to foster recycling of packaging and small consumer goods. The program has contributed to the recycling of paper, glass, plastics and of aluminum, but only minimally to that of steel, which had already reached a high level of performance, before this policy was implemented. "Déchetteries" (waste reception centers) have also contributed to this trend for large consumer goods. Again, the impact on steel has been minimal, as steel found its way into recycling through shredding. issues related to the disposal of industrial waste and of end-of-life goods: again, there is a profitable business related to scrap collection, very active for steel (machines, dismantling of industrial buildings), copper and lead, for example; alloys, such as tool steels, have also been 24

25 collected and recycled, same alloy to same alloy, thus recycling the high value alloying elements at the same time as the iron units. Legislation relative to landfilling, for example the directives on the end of life of electrical appliances or of automotive vehicles, have had a significant influence on aluminum and plastics, much less on steel for the same reasons as explained for domestic waste. legislation fostering reuse and recycling and banning landfilling have been implemented especially in Europe, in addition to legislation aimed at avoiding environmental and health risks, such as IPP (Integrated Product Policy) [31] and REACH [32]. Such legislation has clearly pulled reuse and recycling, where market mechanisms were not strong enough to initiate the process: the market has taken over in some cases and taxes in others. But the analysis of the actual benefits and of the rebound effects due to these policies remains mostly to be done. The main beneficiaries have been materials which initially were not very much reused or recycled, thus not all materials in a broad manner. academic research into recycling and sustainability has also fostered advances in this area, by investigating many subjects and building a rationale for suggesting fruitful synergies, which have been published in famous and important books for raising public awareness [33,, 34, 35]; many students have been taught and enrolled into a field that creates enthusiasm in young people. We will independently review material-to-material recycling and reuse of residues, which both already contribute significantly to the generation of secondary raw materials, but have the potential to generate more. Studies on the effect of legislation and regulation, including positive and negative (rebound effects) feedbacks ought to be launched more systematically, in particular by the political bodies, which are at the origin of that legislation (évaluation des politiques publiques). This calls on political scientists to adopt a more reflexive attitude targeted at critically analyzing existing experience. One should be aware of the fact that a lot of inter-sector synergetic exchange of secondary raw materials and of waste energy already occurs at a significant level: in the steel sector, for example, blast furnace slag, sometimes 100% of it, is used for cement production (where it becomes a substitute for clinker, a high-value re-utilization from an industrial ecology standpoint) but also as roadbed material; waste heat is collected and used for example by cities (e.g. heat from the sinter plant in ArcelorMittal Dunkerque); BOF slag is often used in agriculture, but also as roadbed material; electric arc furnace dust is sent for treatment and beneficiation of zinc, later feeding the zinc sector; steel mill gases (COG, BFG, BOFG) are collected and combusted in steam boilers and power plants; most coke batteries produce a range of chemicals; etc. Steel mills use less waste from other sectors, but pet coke should be on that list, scrap as well, and creative proposals are being made to use waste heat in the steel mill for example to pyrolyze consumer goods [36], etc. Many synergistic exchanges of waste among economic sectors have been studied in the past, without much technical communication as most of them have been unsuccessful [37] and thus not published. Probably the most visible efforts in this direction, i.e. those which have been discussed publicly thanks to grants from the EU, especially from RFCS, have been related to the recovery of zinc from EAF dust, where many projects have been conducted on electrochemical processes, which were developed to fairly large scale pilots and demonstrators, but never made it in the commercial world [38]. These failures should be acknowledged as such and analyzed to help new projects benefit from this experience, rather than be launched "naively" on the basis that sustainability makes them necessary. The key reasons for failure were that profitability never materialized, at least in Europe: zinc collection from EAF dust continues however, based on the Waelz process, a rather mediocre process from a process engineering point of view [39], but one which benefits from existing kilns which have been fully depreciated and thus make it hard for newer processes, where new investment have to be made, to compete with them. The "death valley" of a first industrial implementation thus constitutes another risk, which is hard to overcome. 25

26 When the price of primary raw materials goes up significantly or when the threat of closing landfills "once and for all" is expressed once more, then a flurry of new research on such processes sprouts up. But as soon as these particular conditions wane, the soufflé collapses and the new processes often end up in a particular kind of waste, that of promising new processes that never make it into commercial life. This kind of waste, in terms of research activities, should be avoided in the future! A repository of past experience, published (bibliography) or unpublished (surveys, interviews) should be created to produce a clear picture of what was already accomplished in the past, with positive or negative outcomes. Studies on the reasons for success and failure, conducted by process engineers, but also economists and innovation researchers should be fostered to create a knowledge base on which to build new work. New proposals have often lacked this critical background in the past and generations of processes aimed at solving the same problem have failed again and again! Therefore, the potential for developing new processes, which will have an industrial future, remain somewhat uncertain. As a follow up to the previous studies, a foresight study on what can be expected of industrial ecology synergies, beyond what has already been achieved, should be commissioned by the EU Commission. It should be based on the critical analysis of past successes and failures and identify drivers and approaches that duplicate the success stories and avoid the pitfalls of the past. References (4) 28 J.-P. Birat, The future of CO2-lean steelmaking, Technology developments towards 2050, Scenario 2050 for the Iron & Steel industry in Northern Europe, Luleå, 6/09/201, organized by SVEREA-MEFOS 29 Directive [2008/98/EC] of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste. 30 G.H. Brundtland et al, Our common Future, Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, United Nations, A/43/427, 4 August M. Reuter et al., The metrics of material and metal ecology, Development in Mineral Processing, Elseveir, 2005, 706 p. 34 P. Baccini, P. H. Brunner, Metabolism of the Anthroposphere, The MIT Press, 2012, 392 p. 35 Brian Allwood, Sustainable Materials with both eyes open, Cambridge University Press, 2012, 373 p., 36 Document yet not published 37 Various personal communications 38 For example: REZEDA, Zinex, Zincex, COMET & SIDCOMET, etc. 39 JP. Birat, Recycling & Byproducts in the Steel Industry, in Recycling & Waste treatment in Mineral & Metal Processing: Technical & Economical Aspects, June, 2002, Luleå, Sweden, also in La Revue de metallurgie-cit, 2003,

27 Reduce "Reduce" relates to a lean-economy. The word "dematerialization" has been popular in this context and means "do more with less". It may refer to materials but also to time, as a longer life leads also to "reduce". "Reduce" is an agenda for eco-design of materials, of goods and of production processes. Its ambition is holistic and it virtually embraces all activities in the value chain and in the life cycle of a good. As such, there is no clear target of how much can be accomplished and "the sky may be the limit"! Ecodesign is mostly a concept, a way to design new products, services or processes, while taking on board environmental constraints in addition to functional, economics and esthetics constraints of classical design. How to achieve this is left to the practitioner's art and style and there is no general methodology template, nor a standard, for doing it. Some subdisciplines related to ecodesign have been developed in details: for example design for the end of life of consumer good, with variants such as "design for recycling", "design for dismantling", "design for shredding", etc. At a predictive level, a discipline is taking shape to validate new technologies before they are adopted or authorized by administrations: this is called Technology Assessment (TA), or Sustainability Assessment of Technologies (SAT) a kind of REACH procedure aimed at processes rather than at chemical substances. Last, some ecodesign approaches use LCA as a metrics to support them. Proposing a methodology and building a tool to implement eco design in a general way would therefore constitute a major progress forward. Materials efficiency is measured in terms of use properties and of yield: improved and new steel grades extend the scope of properties, while yields result from optimization of processes, in the steel mill and in the manufacturing plant where steel is incorporated in a final good. Eco-design of intermediate steel products, for example low-inertia beams [40], variable thickness plates or tailored blanks, can also bring significant improvements in weight, material and energy use and environmental footprints. Eco-design of consumer goods is probably the most complex and, potentially, the richest avenue to lean manufacturing. The optimal choice of a material to fulfill a particular function is part of the job: as an example, Figure 14 shows an Ashby diagram for selecting a material with a ratio of modulus to density [41]. The final good is lighter, which may bring benefits in the use phase of the good: light weighting in a car, for example, cuts energy consumption and tailpipe emissions a conclusion that ought to be checked at the level of a full life-cycle, before the benefits are fully acknowledged. In more general words, this means that are no such things as intrinsically "green materials", there are only green solutions that incorporate materials "gifted" for this purpose 5. A generic target in eco design has been formulated as Using less Materials in products, including through lightweighting. The steel industry has been pursuing this strategy for many years, notably through the development of high strength steels and in steels that enable the lightweighting of steel packaging solutions. 5 Green Material labels are common and many material producers are willing to ride on this concept. It should used sparingly, though, as its "ontological" nature is somewhat unclear. The disasters, that first generations of biofuels went through, should have shown how delicate it is to tread this path! In the construction sector, EPD have become a common feature, even though they emphasize only part of the life cycle related to the production phase of materials, do not deal at all with the use phase and are ambivalent about how to handle the end of life. 27

28 How much further can this strategy be taken? Just as some authors have pointed out that there are limits to growth, there are probably also limits to lightweighting Process ecodesign is the third variety of ecodesign, which is under the control of process engineers, for instance in the Steel Mill. Incremental process improvements add up over time to reap significant gains: Figure 14 shows the energy demand for making steel along the process route in a steel mill as function of material yield; the two curves show data for two cases, one more optimized than the other and thus point out to an example of the aggregation of such step-by-step improvements. Figure 13. example of an Ashby diagram for selecting a material that meets a given ratio of modulus to density [41] Stamped car door HD galvanized Energy input (MJ/kg liquid steel) Cold rolled pickled HRC ArcelorMittal data (MJ/kg liquid steel) WellMet Data 17 CC slab liquid steel 15-0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1,0 Cumulative yield (kg output/kg liquid steel) Figure 14. energy consumption in an integrated steel mill as function of the cumulative yield along the production route. Two examples are given, showing an example of the gap between steel mills' performance 28

29 Breakthrough technologies, on the other hand, can induce quantum jumps: the ULCOS program is an example of a process eco-design program to reduce the specific carbon footprint of steel production by at least 50% [42, 43]. Improving yield right through the supply chain is another generic eco design principle.. A significant amount, perhaps more than 25%, of all liquid steel does not make it to final product before being remelted. Another line of thought is to examine what options there are to conserve the energy and other resources that have been invested in this steel? Designing more durable, longer life products is still another eco design rule. This is an area that has been pursued by the steel industry for many years, for example through the development of coatings for corrosion protection and more durable grades for specialist applications. As with lightweighting, there remains more scope for improvements to be made. More intense use of steel products, e.g. using a product more frequently or by using more of its capacity when it is used: the capacity of a car is rarely used to its full potential. Strategies in this category are likely to address the way that products are used and hence would tend to be directed at end users and society in general, rather than being something the steel sector could pursue in isolation. References (5) 40 e.g. Angelina Beam, ArcelorMittal,, 41 M. F. Ashby, Materials and the Environment, Elsevier, 2009, 385 p. 42 J.-P. Birat, J. Borlée, H. Lavelaine, D. Sert, P. Négro, K. Meijer, J. van der Stel, P. Sikstrom, ULCOS Program: An Update In 2012, 4 th International Conference on Process Development in Iron and Steelmaking, June 2012, Luleå, Sweden 43 J.-P. Birat, J. Borlée, A.-L. Hettinger, F. Saunier, Clean Steels in Europe, 8th International Conference on Clean Steel, May 2012, Budapest, Hungary 29

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31 Reuse of steel Since 2009, Dr Julian Allwood, of the University of Cambridge, has been leading the 5-year EPSRC 6 funded WellMet2050 project. The project has been exploring some of the strategies towards material and resource efficiency (initially with a focus on CO 2 reduction), in the steel and aluminium sectors, through 4 broad themes: Conserving metal energy (e.g. re-use) Using less metal to deliver same service (e.g. lightweighting, yield) Prolonging metal use (e.g. more durable products) Efficiencies in supply chains (e.g. through reducing the number of heating cycles in the supply chain to achieve desired material properties) Reports on each of those themes have been published and are available from the project web-site: and a book presents them all together [35]. An industrial consortium, which includes worldsteel, Tata Steel and several key steel users helps to steer the project priorities and activities. The project has already proven to be influential at a UK and international level. The next stages are to develop demonstrators of some of the promising ideas already explored in general terms and to seek further influence of governments, policy and standards in order to pursue material efficiency agendas. Potential Strategies (probably not exhaustive): Diverting manufacturing scrap. Rather than sending manufacturing scrap (e.g. from automotive blanking operations) to be remelted, what possibilities exist to divert the material to be used in other applications? Re use of steel products and components. Re use of structural steel appears to be a strong area of opportunity, both of material arising now and in designing now for future re use (DfR: Design for Reuse). What might the business models look like and what systems would need to be in place for these to be viable? Further analysis of these strategies reveals some interesting possibilities and some conflicts within too; designing structural steel components with re-use in mind may be at odds with the design of components that are lightweight and optimised for a particular building for example. Nonetheless, within these strategies there may be significant opportunities for new product developments and new businesses, which could help the steel sector to play its part in meeting the very tough resource efficiency challenges it is presented with. 6 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (United Kingdom) 31