NOTINGS FROM THE WEBINAR ON BF/BOFs Vs DRI/SCRAP-EAF STEEL MAKING ROUTE

29Th SEMINAR , ORGANIZED BY STEEL & METALLURGY

The webinar was attended by several industry leader in Steel Making across the country and Important
among them are,

1. DrV.K.Saraswat, Member from Niti Ayog , Government of India

2. Santosh Mundheda, CEO Arcel Mittal, Hazira
3. A.K.Saxsena, Director Operation, RINL
4. V.r.Sharma , Vice President, JSPL
5. Ravi Singh,
6. Prabhat Ghrui, Vice President , JSW,Vijaynagaram
7. Sidharth Mishra, TATA Steel

Other participants who also attended are from Poulworth, Primemetal, Danially, SMS and
Representative from Pellet Production units.

Following are few of the extracts obtained from the Webinar.

1. The world as a whole is already in an environmental crisis as pointed out in International forum
due to Global Warming. Several fallout of Increase in temperature is now being experienced in
terms of erratic weather behaviors. One of the study pointed out that further increase in
average global temperature will seriously affect the activities of many bio-diversities including
the pollination process. This will bring about crisis in agriculture leading to serious food crisis in
global level.
2. On serious note the international forum warned both the Developed and developing nation to
take action in curbing global warming. India has to reduce its CO2 emission level to 50% by
2030.
3. It is with this background and also with the several impending crisis such as cost of Energy,
depleting high quality reserve of raw material, the Steel Fraternity across the Country is looking
forward to several technological solutions.
4. With the BF-BOF route being the prominent driver of steel making technology, it is giving the
Steel maker the required scalability plus profit. However issues with this technology are higher
carbon emission, non-green energy consumption and depleting reserve of raw material. Thus
Steel Industry at present on a serious note contemplating on various alternative routes which
are not only environment friendly but also easy with depleting raw material issue. In this
regards several technological solution are available. Some are at industrial scale and some are at
semi-industrial pilot scale needing further fillip from Industrial research drive.
5. Dr V.K.Saraswat elaborated the forum regarding various technological solutions available to
Steel Fraternity of India. Prominent among them are the Gas based DRI-EAF, Green Hydrogen
based DR-EAF & Scrap-EAF.
6. The Gas based DRI-EAF route contemplate on producing pallets from gas based DRI process. The
gas will be generated from coal. Dr. Saraswat emphasized on the extensive coal gasification
drive across the country in order to use the huge reserve of coal in the country. Around 350
billion tons of coal reserve is there in the country which in not used now then when? He
proposes technology solution for high capacity coal gasification unit which will generate
followings.
a) Hydrogen
 b) Methanol
c) Many useful coal based chemical for other usage.
The hydrogen and methane gas generated from coal gasification will be used in DRI to produce
pallets for steel industry. This coal gas will be used to generate power which will be used in
smelting of pallets in EAF.

7. The green hydrogen based DR-EAF process contemplate on generating non-fossil fuel based
generation hydrogen using solar based energy source to do industrial electrolysis. This green
hydrogen will be used for DRI to produce pallets. The smelting will be by EAF route where
electric power will be given from solar energy.
8. The scrap based EAF is an already established route using electric power for smelting. Here
availability of sufficient scrap will be the only requirement as this is the only raw material to
produce steel.
9. Dr Saraswat pointed that technology for all the above alternate route of steel making is already
available and Indian Steel Industry has to take a lead to work out the best feasible answer to the
existing BF-BOF route. Country should be prepared to take risk in doing adequate trials on
industrial scale and bring economy of scale to the above alternate. He highlighted that this is the
requirement of the time for our own survival.
10. The response from the Industry leader such as, JSPL, JSW, RINL, SAIL, TATA STEEL was quite
calibrated. The concern was to run business with already huge investment in BF-BOF route.