Australia-based group says scrap-fed electric arc furnaces offer proven emissions reduction technology for steelmakers.

Expanding scrap steel recycling will be a significant step forward in decarbonizing the steel industry, says a new report from the Australia-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

“Steel recycling is mature and cost-competitive,” say the report’s authors, IEEFA analysts Simon Nicholas and Soroush Basirat. “The quality of steel made from recycled scrap is on the rise even as carbon emissions from the process are poised to drop further with the continuing rollout of renewable energy.”

In 2020, global crude steel production was 1.88 billion metric tons. Of that, nearly three-quarters came from the integrated blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace process (BF-BOF), which IEEFA calls both energy- and carbon-intensive.

The groups say adopting more of the alternative electric arc furnace (EAF) option, whether using ferrous scrap or direct reduced iron (DRI), can help the steel industry lower its carbon emissions total.

Says co-author Basirat, “The energy consumption of BF-BOF processes is almost 10 times that of scrap-EAF. In addition, the direct emission of a BF-BOF process using iron ore and coal is 30 times higher than a scrap-based process.”

Steel production by the scrap-EAF route is by far the largest source of new steel in the United States, which is assisted by the high availability of scrap in such a large and mature economy, says IEEFA. In 2020, 71 percent of total crude steel production in the U.S. was via EAFs. In the EU, the figure was 42 percent.

Globally in 2020, steel produced from EAFs amounted to 26 percent of the world’s crude steel production, the bulk of it using scrap as feedstock.

The steel sector is estimated to directly emit 7 percent of the global pollution. There has been a recent focus on the potential use of green hydrogen to produce DRI to decarbonize production but, the analysts say, cost-competitive green hydrogen to use at scale is years away.

“Meanwhile, the use of scrap steel in EAFs is already a widely practiced, lower-emission steel production method,” the 22-page report says. “It is not on its own a solution to fully decarbonize the steel sector, but it is poised to help the global steel sector reduce emissions for the rest of the 2020s and in following decades,” says co-author Nicholas.

He continues, “This strongly hints at the potential for more scrap use in economies such as China, Japan and South Korea where steel recycling rates are much lower,” Nicholas says.

In 2020, China produced 57 percent of the world’s crude steel with 91 percent manufactured via the BF-BOF process, leaving just 9 percent produced via EAFs. By adopting steel recycling, China would improve its resource security by reducing its reliance on Australia’s iron ore and coking coal, says the IEEFA.

Beijing already has a ban on Australian coal imports in place and has recently resumed scrap steel imports. China’s scrap steel consumption surged by 47 percent to 138 million metric tons in the first half of 2021, says the institute.

As steelmaking via the scrap-fed EAF process does not use iron ore or coking coal, Nicholas and Basirat say, there are clear, long-term implications for exporters of these resources. Australia is by far the largest exporter of both.

There is debate over the potential for using scrap steel in producing some of the highest-quality grades in light of impurities such as copper, but these grades comprise a small portion of overall steel mill production.

In 2020, the share of the automotive sector–-the most quality-sensitive category–-was only 12 percent of total global steel consumption. The bulk of global steel production is for building and infrastructure products, where impurities are less of an issue and these can be manufactured via scrap-fed EAF processes, according to the IEEFA.

In addition, technology advancements mean that the scrap-fed EAF steelmaking process is now being used to make even the highest-quality automotive steel in the U.S., adds the institute.

The total value of the contract is $1.6 million and will run through 2023.

Appliance Recycling Centers of America Inc. (ARCA), an appliance recycler based in Minneapolis that is a subsidiary of JanOne Inc., was recently awarded a contract to provide appliance recycling services to customers of a major electric utility in Virginia and North Carolina. 

According to a news release from ARCA, the program encourages the early retirement of low-efficiency refrigerators and freezers and will run through 2023. ARCA estimates the total value of the contract awarded to be about $1.6 million.

ARCA says appliances collected through the program will be recycled at one of its regional recycling centers in the northeastern United States. The appliances will be processed in compliance with the U.S. EPA's Responsible Appliance Disposal Program guidelines.

Atlanta-based plastic scrap-to-polymers firm reports “meaningful investment” from petrochemical company.

Atlanta-based Nexus Circular, a plastic scrap-to-virgin polymers conversion company, says it has received “a meaningful investment” from Texas-based Six Pines Investments LLC, a subsidiary of Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC. (CPChem).

Citing “outsized demand for circular plastics made from waste,” Nexus also says it has continued to ramp up production at its Atlanta commercial plant. The firm says it has now produced some 2,250 tons and counting of “consistent, International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) Plus-certified output produced and sold to clients who create virgin, recycled-content resins for their customers.”

Calling CPChem “a leader in production of such resins in the United States,” Nexus says the global company has identified it “as an important collaborator” in reaching its goal of 500,000 tons of circular polyethylene offered annually by 2030.

Benny Mermans, vice president sustainability at CPChem, comments, “Nexus and CPChem share a common goal to divert plastic waste from the environment. Waste plastics should not end up in the environment, as they can be circularly recycled into new plastics for use across a wide array of applications. We are pleased to be working with, and now invested in, Nexus. This investment will accelerate the rollout of our Marlex Anew Circular Polyethylene products across the U.S. and the world.”

Says Eric Hartz, president and co-founder of Nexus, “To help reduce waste plastics, Nexus has remained focused on a solution that is economic and scalable. We have now executed on this plan and have proven it works. We are fortunate to have a like-minded collaborator in Six Pines, willing to support our rapid growth, as companies’ announced dates for meeting recycled-content goals approach quickly.”

Nexus says to date it has converted the equivalent of more than 35 million grocery bags of plastic scrap that would have otherwise ended up in landfills. Nexus says its process can handle hard-to-recycle films and is “infinitely circular since advanced recycling is done at the molecular level and does not deteriorate over cycles.”

The facility is expected to process 60,000 metric tons of plastic feedstock annually.

Cyclyx International, a plastic feedstock management company based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has announced it is developing a plastic recovery facility to process postuse plastics for committed offtake associated with advanced recycling projects on the Gulf Coast. This includes ExxonMobil’s large-scale postuse plastic advanced recycling facility recently announced for Baytown, Texas.

According to a news release from Cyclyx, engineering work has begun on the proposed facility and the site will open in 2022. The factory is expected to process up to 60,000 metric tons of recycled plastic feedstock annually. Cyclyx says it plans to develop a network of similar facilities, linked to committed offtake agreements, to support growth in advanced recycling. 

The company says it is designing the proposed facility to allow for processing scrap plastic feedstock customized to meet the needs of individual customer specifications. Cyclyx will source post-use mixed plastics for the project via a range of existing sources while continuing to expand its collaboration with companies from across the value chain to develop circular solutions for difficult-to-recycle plastic waste.

“We are excited to launch this phase of the company’s growth strategy,” says Joe Vaillancourt, CEO of Cyclyx. “The development of these customized plastics recovery facilities is critical in meeting the growing needs of advanced recyclers and is a big step forward toward our mission of helping increase the plastic recycling rate from 10 percent to 90 percent.” 

Cyclyx was founded by Agilyx Corp., an advanced chemical recycling company based in Tigard, Oregon, with ExxonMobil Chemical Co., Irving, Texas. Since its founding, a growing number of companies has joined the consortium.

Birdz and Sensoneo will jointly produce and market collection tracking technology.

Slovakia-based Sensoneo and France-based Birdz, a subsidiary of Veolia, have announced reaching a “partnership aimed at accelerating their joint development in the international market of intelligent management and recovery of waste.”

Sensoneo describes itself as a provider of “smart sensors with advanced tracking and monitoring equipment and sophisticated software” designed to provide “digital transformation and data-driven decision making” for generators and collectors of waste and recyclables.

Birdz describes itself as “a pioneer in remote monitoring of water consumption” with more than 3 million connected sensors deployed worldwide.

“The partnership with Sensoneo started from a simple observation: In France as well as globally, the current waste recovery offer only covers very little of the collection part,” says Christian Carrara of Birdz. “Waste is collected at predefined times which are in fact not correlated with the actual rate of filling of the Dumpsters. Optimizing collection would allow communities to reduce costs, avoid unnecessary travel to improve their environmental performance and provide better service to their fellow citizens to prevent them from finding themselves in front of Dumpsters [that are] full.”

Sensoneo says its Smart Waste line (Asset Management, Waste Monitoring and Collection Planner), succeeds in shrinking waste collection routes by from 30 to 63 percent, “which directly impacts emissions and fuel and enables customers to monitor actual waste production with 97 percent accuracy.”

This partnership is being designed to allow the two firms to “combine their expertise to bring an innovative and complete Smart Waste solution to the international market.” The offer will initially focus on Voluntary Contribution Points (PAVs – street bins with either public or private access) and will then extend to access control issues.

The two firms say that aspect of collection is “particularly interesting for local authorities setting up incentive pricing systems according to the principle of polluter pays.”

“We greatly appreciate the opportunity to partner with Birdz,” states Martin Basila, CEO and co-founder of Sensoneo. “They have succeeded in becoming leaders in environmental IoT [internet of things] and we believe the combination of the know-how of our parties has the power to tangibly transform the way cities and businesses operate when it comes to waste. We look forward to the opportunities that our cooperation will bring.”

Birdz says it has been extending its long-time presence in the “smart water” market into other “smart city” issues for several years, including the waste and recycling collection sectors.

Birdz and Sensoneo say they aim to launch a joint product to the market by the first quarter of 2022.