Techno-economic Study of an Integrated Steelworks Equipped with Oxygen Blast Furnace and CO2 Capture

AbstractA techno-economic comparison of a reference integrated steelworks with a steelworks equipped with Oxygen Blast Furnace technology and CO2 capture is presented. Robust process and economic models were developed that could be customized to suit any integrated steel mill specific to their configuration.The whole operation of the steel mill including the OBF-system was modeled for a European Atlantic coastal scenario using a spreadsheet-based model. An amine-type solvent system MDEA/Pz was chosen as solvent to capture CO2 from the raw BF topgas. A discounted cash flow through-cost model was used for economic analyses. Results show that the OBF with CO2 capture offers a significant potential to reduce the overall CO2 emissions from an integrated steel mill achieving 47% CO2 avoidance at a cost of ∼$56/t CO2 for the given assumptions. The avoidance cost is particularly sensitive to the cost of energy, capital expenditure and discount rate. Further improvements in oxygen production, CO2 capture system, and optimization of power/heat integration between steel mill, CO2 capture plant and power generation could lead to lower CO2 avoidance costs