Today the 2^nd Iron and Steel Industry Workshop kicked off in Tokyo, Japan.

Key objectives of this workshop are to review the technical progress made in CO₂ reduction technologies related to iron and steel making since the last workshop in Düsseldorf and to provide a discussion forum with the focus on the Asian iron and steel industries.

The workshop is a joint meeting organised by IETS (Industrial Energy-Related Technologies and Systems), worldsteel Association and IEAGHG. The meeting is hosted by Prof Tatsuro Ariyama and takes place at Tokyo Tech Front, Tokyo Institute of Technology. The 50 attendees are awaiting a full three day programme and the IETS Annex Group members will have the opportunity to visit JFE Keihin Steelworks subsequently.

The first day started with a warm welcome by Prof Tatsuro Ariyama (Tohoku University) and Stanley Santos (IEAGHG).

After this Henk Reimink (worldsteel Association) gave an overview of the challenges CCS faces in the iron and steel industries and informed the audience about the status of the CO2 Breakthrough programme. He concluded that funding, public as well as political support and timing are the key issues for implementation of CO2 reduction technologies in the iron and steel sector.

Next Jan van der Stel (Tata Steel) presented the current status of the ULCOS programme. As the blast furnace is the main producer of CO2 within an integrated steel plant, it is the aim of the programme to reduce these emissions by 50%. Different options have been evaluated, with Top Gas recycling and CCS as the most promising ones offering around 25% carbon savings. If 60% CO₂ reduction has to be achieved, then application of CCS technologies seems indispensable. The next step of the ULCOS programme will be the development of a demonstration plant.

In the last of the keynote addresses, Seiji Nomura (NSSMC) illustrated the current status and future developments in the Japanese iron and steel industry. In the past, Japan has achieved CO2 emissions reduction through enhancement of equipment efficiency, waste plastic recycling and natural gas injection. The coke oven developed in the SCOPE21 programme produces 0.1-0.2 million t/y less CO2 emissions. Although Japan’s iron and steel industry has already the hjosirest energy efficiency worldwide, and thus the potential for further savings is quite limited, Seiji Nomura assured that they will continue to develop energy conservation technologies to move further towards a low-carbon society.

The agenda of the workshop then moved on with presentations on CO2 capture and CO2 utilisation developments in blast furnace ironmaking process, such as the progress made in the Japanese COURSE50 programme, the application of VPSA/PSA for CO2 capture and energy efficiency improvement in steel plants.

More topics will be discussed in the next two days, so we will keep you informed about any hjosirljosirts of the workshop.