…because under the current Tata arc furnace plan, Port Talbot will only be able to RECYCLE steel. The UK will STILL need to import some virgin steel (eg made from iron, via a blast furnace or hydrogen DRI).
Where will that come from? Most likely blast furnaces overseas…
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Here’s one of the blast furnaces at Port Talbot being tapped. Witnessing it is an extraordinary experience. What you’re looking at here is molten pig iron, hotter than lava, coursing out.
Blast furnaces exist to turn rock (rich in iron) into metal.
They are breathtaking places…
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The problem is, the main product of these blast furnaces (there are two at Port Talbot) is actually not iron, but carbon. About a tonne and a half of carbon for every tonne of iron.
In carbon terms, blast furnaces are the single most concentrated source of pollution anywhere…
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The
@TataSteelLtd
plan is to pull down the two blast furnaces at Port Talbot and replace them with electric arc furnaces.
These are much less carbon intensive. Pictured is the Liberty steel arc furnace in Rotherham. Inside there is man-made lightning melting down scrap steel!
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1. It’s very expensive. Hence why the government is paying hundreds of millions of pounds of subsidies to help Tata do it. Tata argue this is justified: it’s necessary to meet govt net zero legislation and the only economic alternative would be no steel production…
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2. It’ll mean the loss of the majority of jobs at PT.
Think abt how steelmaking works & you begin to see why.
There are hundreds of jobs at blast furnaces. Hundreds in basic oxygen converters. With arc furnaces you don’t need either of these steps.
The functions go. The jobs go.
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3. It also isn’t as ambitious in industrial/climate terms as it cld be. The next big thing isn’t electric arc furnaces. The UK was really just an outlier in having so few of them. The next big thing is truly green steel, most likely via hydrogen DRI…
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The unions at PT had argued that
@TataSteelLtd
should phase down the furnaces, and rather than putting all its eggs into the electric arc furnace, should also invest in hydrogen DRI. Clearly that would safeguard jobs. But it also had another powerful logic…
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Labour's
@jreynoldsMP
and
@RachelReevesMP
met with the Tata leadership here in Davos and urged them to take the Unions' demands seriously. But it seems they're not moving. More on this from
@SkyNews
in the coming days. In the meantime, if you want more about steel, BUY MY BOOK
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@EdConwaySky
Do we really still need to import virgin steel? Couldn’t/shouldn’t all needs be met with recycled steel?
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@clarkaw
You still need a bit to go into arc furnaces, and there are certain grades which supposedly you can't make with recycled steel, tho they're getting better at the metallurgy all the time
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@EdConwaySky
There are more ways to create virgin steel than using hydrogen. Some see hydrogen as an easy stepping stone / stop gap to molten oxide or low temperature electrolysis
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@EdConwaySky
Move the carbon problem elsewhere so not actually dealing with any climate change problems but a the sacrifice of UK workers
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@EdConwaySky
And they wonder why our economy hardly grows?
Time was, the Govt. stayed out of such things. If people wanted to make steel, the economy would grow. Govt. now thinks it has a magic command economy the Govt think its can impose now where we make nothing but somehow grow anyway.
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