IP/00/1237 Brussels, 30 October 2000 eu steel research addresses environmental issues

Brussels, 30 October 2000

‘Environmentally friendly steel industry’ may seem like a contradiction, but scientific and technological research funded by the European Coal and Steel Community is making it happen. Tomorrow, projects concerning transforming hazardous waste into raw materials for high-performance magnets; improving safety, and reducing emissions and costs by using artificial intelligence to manage a blast furnace; decreasing energy consumption and CO₂ output by up to 90% during direct strip casting; or making steel for car bodies more resistant to chipping, will be presented to the media at the Usinor Group’s Sollac Atlantic steel plant in Dunkirk.

Four projects will be presented by the research scientists leading the projects, and include a visit to the blast furnace. After the presentations, the EU’s research Commissioner, Philippe Busquin, Francis Mer, chairman of the Usinor Group, and the presenting scientists will answer questions. Transport from Brussels to Dunkirk and back will be provided (bus to leave 9h30 from Breydel building, return 18h30).

The European steel industry is still a big employer providing work for about 300.000 people and producing 160 million tonnes of steel representing a value of more than 70 billion Euro. Research always figured prominently in this sector and was undertaken on European level within the Treaty for Coal and Steel. During the 50 years of existence of this Treaty the total volume of research work is estimated to be about 1 billion Euro. Today, steel research funded by the EU budget amounts to about 56 million Euro per year. The current research programme will fund about 330 projects worth 420 million Euro, of which 234 million from the European budget involving 1.200 contractors.

The fact is that to manage a blast furnace effectively requires too much data for human processing. The project developed by Usinor’s advanced data processing unit uses rules built into an expert system to monitor 3350 variables every minute, giving warnings and recommendations based on these. The warnings of possible anomalies make operations safer, while the overall effect is to produce better stability and a higher-quality product needing less reprocessing, and give the blast furnace itself a longer life. The savings obtained have already exceeded expectations and run into millions of Euro per year – for each site! The system, which has been patented, is beginning to find application in other continuous processes outside the steel industry, too.

Galvannealing is a process that yields good results: a surface suitable for painting and resistant to corrosion, at a reasonable price. Small wonder that most of the steel used to press car parts is galvannealed. But it has some weak points.

During pressing the protective surface layer can deteriorate, and, once the steel has become part of a car, stones flung up from the road can chip small pieces away leaving unprotected steel exposed to corrosive elements such as water and road salt. This project, led by the Centre for Research in Metallurgy (CRM, Belgium), has resulted in a new thermal treatment which addresses those weak points leading to a better product and a 30% increase in productivity for the steel maker. It also reduces wear and tear on the carmaker’s tools and gives the consumer a car with a longer life. The process is already in production and has seen rapid take-up by the auto industry.

From hazardous waste to high-performance magnets

One of the unavoidable by-products of steel production is iron oxide sludge, a hazardous waste product resulting from the regeneration of the hydrochloric acid used for ‘pickling’¹ the steel. Traditionally this sludge was roasted for 45 minutes in a rotary kiln using large quantities of energy. The project, co-ordinated by EKO Stahl GmbH (Germany), has developed a vertical ‘flash’ treatment lasting only three seconds (for the same volume of sludge) which is also cleaner, requires less space, uses less energy and is easier to control. The resulting ferrite powder will form an excellent raw material for high-performance permanent magnets.

A traditional strip casting steel line is 800-1000 metres long and uses vast quantities of energy with proportionally large CO₂ emissions. A project consortium led by Salzgitter AG (Germany) has developed a process which takes up only a fraction of the space and reduces energy consumption and CO₂ production during the casting and rolling process by up to 90% (compared with slab production; 50% vs. thin slab production). Using a protective, neutral atmosphere the process makes better use of scrap steel as input than conventional processes, and gives better surface and mechanical properties. It has application for the auto, shipbuilding and aeronautics industries.

Stephen Gosden Communication Unit, Research DG

Tel: +32.2.29.60079 Fax: +32.2.29.58220

E-mail: Stephen.Gosden@cec.eu.int

For project-related information, please contact:

Manuela Seminara, Scientific Officer, Research DG

Tel: +32.2.29.69201 Fax: +32.2.29. 65987

E-mail: Manuela.Seminara@cec.eu.int