Green Carbon in metallurgy

Green Carbon: The path to sustainable steel production

Is metallurgy on the brink of transformation? While the steel industry is responsible for 5-7 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the Green Carbon offers an innovative alternative to fossil coal. Why we need coal in metallurgy at all and whether and how this transformation is linked to our reverse power plants - that and more follows now.

Why do we need green carbon in metallurgy?

The green carbon produced in the SYNCRAFT reverse power plants is a high-quality, sustainable raw material that can also replace fossil coals in metallurgical processes, in addition to many other areas of application. With a carbon content of around 90 % and a calorific value of around 29 MJ/kg, it offers ideal properties for steel production and other metallurgical applications.

Core features for metallurgy:

• High carbon content (approx. 90 %)
• Low ash content for optimum process control
• Controlled reactivity for precise applications
• Uniform particle size distribution
• Defossilization

Applications of green carbon in metallurgy

1. Steel production: replacement for reduction coke

In traditional steel production, coke is used as a reducing agent in the blast furnace to reduce iron ore to pig iron. Green Carbon can replace fossil coke and thereby:

• Reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 30
• Reducing dependence on fossil fuels
• Making the process more environmentally friendly
• Ensure process stability through controlled properties

2. Direct reduction: partner for green hydrogen

In modern direct reduction processes, Green Carbon optimally complements green hydrogen:

• Reduction of hydrogen demand
• Improving energy efficiency
• Stabilization of the process temperatures

3. Electric arc furnaces

In electric steelworks, Green Carbon serves as a:

• Carburizing agent for carbon adjustment
• Slag formers for optimum metallurgy
• Energy source for temperature stabilization

The advantages of green carbon for metallurgy

The steel and metal industry is one of the biggest producers of CO₂ emissions worldwide. A large proportion of these are caused by the use of fossil coal in the blast furnace process. Green carbon opens up a completely new path here: it makes it possible to replace fossil raw materials and thus reduce CO₂ emissions. This not only improves the carbon footprint of metallurgy, but also creates a stable, future-proof supply of a versatile raw material.

• Defossilization
  The decisive advantage: Green Carbon is obtained in the Reversepowerplant by binding and storing around 30 % of the CO₂ originally contained in the forest residues in the long term. While conventional steel production uses fossil coal, which causes additional CO₂ emissions through combustion, Green Carbon uses CO₂ that has already been stored. This means that no fossil carbon is extracted and no "new" CO₂ is added to the atmosphere - a clear step towards true defossilization and climate-friendly steel production.
• Technical advantages
  In addition to its climate-positive effect, Green Carbon also has impressive material properties. Compared to fossil coal, it has a significantly lower sulphur content and lower concentrations of heavy metals. This leads to lower emissions and protects production facilities. At the same time, it offers consistent quality and improved processing properties, which ensures reliable and consistently high performance in metallurgical processes.
• Economic aspects
  Green Carbon also offers clear economic advantages. As a regionally available raw material, it enables stable prices and reduces dependence on volatile international coal markets. This ensures planning security - a decisive factor in a globally competitive industry. In addition, the use of green carbon enhances the sustainability profile of companies and improves their image among customers, partners and investors, who are increasingly paying attention to climate-positive production methods.

With green carbon, metallurgical processes can not only be made more sustainable, but also technically and economically more efficient. This makes it a central component of a defossilized and climate-friendly future for the steel and metal industry.

Metallurgy undergoes a GREEN rethink

Green Carbon is becoming increasingly strategically important in the European context. It is considered a key technology for a competitive and climate-neutral industry. The initiative Biochar Europe describes in a recent paper how biochar - and therefore also Green Carbon - can contribute to shaping a resilient, climate-neutral and resource-efficient European economy.

Biochar Europe thus underlines the importance of carbon-based negative emission technologies such as SYNCRAFT's reverse power plants, which combine renewable energy with permanent CO₂ storage potential.

The market potential

The global market for sustainable carbon in metallurgy is growing exponentially:

• European Green Deal prescribes CO₂ neutrality
• EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) favors climate-friendly products
• Industrial demand for green alternatives continues to rise

The bottom line

Metallurgy is one of the industries with the highest energy and carbon requirements - and therefore also one of the largest CO₂ emitters. Green Carbon opens up a realistic opportunity to replace fossil coal in steel and metal production. Although the carbon is burned in the process and releases CO₂, the decisive factor is that it is not fossil carbon that has been bound for millions of years, but biogenic carbon from renewable raw materials. This means that no additional "new" CO₂ is released into the atmosphere, but a climate-friendly cycle is created.

In addition to this contribution to defossilization, Green Carbon also offers technical advantages such as lower sulphur and heavy metal content and stable quality. In economic terms, regional availability ensures greater security of supply and price stability.

This makes Green Carbon an important building block for making steel production more sustainable - and for gradually making the transformation of metallurgy more climate-friendly.

Sources and further links

Internal links:

• • Green Carbon: the key to CO₂ reduction
  • The Reversepowerplant: The future of energy
  • Carbon sinks: solutions for climate change
  • Climate-positive building with green carbon

External sources:

• Decarbonization of the steel industry - European Investment Bank
• Carbonization and biochar - Fraunhofer UMSICHT
• Green coal - new energy
• Hydrogen instead of coal - Green steel of the future - BDEW
• Biochar for industrial use - Carbstream
• Steel and metal industry - biochar zero

Scientific references:

• Rita Khanna et al: "Biochars in iron and steel industries" - Current research on biochar applications in metallurgy
• EU Green Deal and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) - Legal framework for sustainable metallurgy