Grain-oriented electrical steel with a particularly low carbon footprint has been ordered from thyssenkrupp Steel by SGB-SMIT, a German maker of transformers that is fulfilling an order for energy group Eon.
Since October last year, thyssenkrupp Steel has been offering certified CO2-reduced steel under the “Bluemint” brand name. For the batch now delivered to SGB-SMIT, reduced iron has been used in the blast furnace, enabling a reduction in coal usage, Kallanish hears. Including all further processing steps in Duisburg and in Gelsenkirchen, a CO2 saving of 50% per tonne of Bluemint is achieved compared with conventional electrical steel, tk Steel claims.
“If low-CO2 power generation from renewable sources becomes predominant in the future, the share of CO2 emissions generated during the production phase of the transformer will come into even sharper focus,” says thyssenkrupp Electrical Steel managing director Georgios Giovanakis. “Therefore, the next logical step is now to offer electrical steel itself with reduced CO2 intensity.”
He underlines investments undertaken to enable the unit’s plants in Germany, France and India to make sophisticated grades characterised by particularly low core losses, and thus achieve high efficiencies in current transport.
Christian Koehl Germany
