EVALUATION OF CHARCOAL PRODUCTION FOR THE SUBSTITUTION COKING COAL FOR THE IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY

Abstract

The presented work focuses on the assessment of charcoal production to replace coal coke in the process of iron and steel production to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. The main task of the research is to identify and evaluate the possible environmental benefits and economic sustainability of such a replacement. For this, the work used a mathematical model of charcoal production using a factorial approach and parametric research methods. The article presents the results of a technical, economic and environmental assessment of such production, taking into account costs and some assumptions for a probable hypothetical plant with a capacity of 100,000 tons of charcoal per year. The above-mentioned estimates of production according to the base scenario and according to the proposed scenario 1 were compared. The base scenario envisages the production of charcoal and includes the by-production of bio-oil, electricity, thermal energy for drying biomass, and scenario 1 also envisages the production of additional by-products: methanol, acetic acid, tar (are released from the formed pyroligneous acid), as well as a parallel increase in production electrical and thermal energy. The obtained results show that the considered plant cannot be economically viable without the introduction of a carbon tax (incentive), but production according to scenario 1 is economically more attractive. will be economically viable for various scenarios. For the considered technological options for the production of charcoal by a plant with a capacity of 100,000 tons per year, such an important economic criterion as the payback period (PBP) was calculated. It is shown that when scenario 1 is implemented, the PBP is 20 years at $14.5 of CO2-e./t, and at $32.5 of CO2-e./t the PBP is 8 years. Bibl. 47, Fig. 5, Tab. 15.