World’s second-largest steel producer India to also become its most responsible through green steel adoption, says Jyotiraditya Scindia

According to Mining News Pro - Making it mandatory for steelmakers to dedicate a certain percentage of their production lines to making green steel and encouraging its usage in government projects may be some of the best ways to promote the use of the product, union steel minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said.

“Steel is a founding precept of any emerging or developing economy. As our aspirations grow development will seek newer vistas. Therefore, from being the world’s second-largest steel producer, the country also needs to become a responsible steel producer,” the minister stressed.

The minister said that the government sought to decarbonise the steel industry by encouraging enhanced use of renewable sources of energy, application of resource-efficient materials, further expansion of scrap usage, possible use of green hydrogen as a furnace fuel in the future and exploration of carbon capture utilisation and storage.

The minister made these comments at the launch of India’s first green steel brand, Saarloha Kalyani FeRRESTA, in New Delhi on Tuesday. Commending the $3 billion Kalyani Group subsidiary for taking the lead in the area, the minister hoped the country’s other steelmakers would also follow suit.

“The [Kalyani Group] initiative will help transform the steel sector’s long-standing identity as a carbon-emitting ‘hard to abate sector’ to a reduced carbon emitting-green steel-producing industry,” the minister said.

The steel industry produces 7 per cent of CO2 emissions internationally, while the Indian steel industry accounts for 12 per cent of such emissions. Green steel is manufactured using low-carbon energy sources such as hydrogen, coal gasification and electricity instead the widely used coking coal.

Chairperson of Saarloha Advanced Materials, RK Goyal, said given the importance of steel in a variety of applications, producers had to be mindful of ramping up their green steel capacities.

“If we don’t take up the production of green steel, it won’t be just the steel industry but also industries like automotive components with $20 billion in exports that will be at stake,” cautioned Goyal.

He further informed that the company had successfully managed to achieve up to 90 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by replacing the coking coal furnace with an electric one powered by renewable energy.

Deputy managing director of Bharat Forge, Amit Kalyani said they had examined every aspect of sustainability such as the US’s Clean Air Act, logistics and discharge of waste while developing the Saarloha Kalyani FeRRESTA green steel brand.

“The company avoided 76,484 total carbon dioxide (tCO2) emissions, reduced water consumption by 10 per cent and recycled 99.4 per cent of its waste,” he said, adding, “We have combined our entire CSR approach with the ESG goals.”