Abstract
The article is concerned with the urgent problem of decarbonisation of metallurgy, which produces 8% of global CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere. Solving this problem will help us protect ourselves from the effects of climate change caused by rising temperatures on the Earth’s surface. Metallurgical production, which does not emit CO₂ into the atmosphere and consumes raw materials and energy obtained without the use of fossil fuels, is called ‘green’ metallurgy. The transformation of ferrous metallurgy into ‘green’ one occurs mainly by replacing the traditional steelmaking scheme ‘blast furnace–oxygen converter’ with a new one ‘direct reduced iron–electric arc furnace’. The article identifies the most promising methods for producing ‘green’ steel: Midrex, Energiron ZR, YBRIT, in which direct reduced iron is obtained in shaft furnaces using a gaseous reducing agent. The Energiron ZR technology is implemented at the plant of the American company Nucor Steel Louisiana. The Midrex and HYBRIT technologies will be implemented at the plants under construction in the Swedish cities of Boden and Gällivare. The article also draws attention to the new energy-efficient HIsarna cast iron production technology, which allows capturing up to 80% of CO₂, as well as reducing emissions of dust, NO_x, SO_x, and CO by 60–80%.