“Govt looking at both supply and demand side drivers for green steel production”

India is today the world’s second-largest producer of steel, producing about 154 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). As the nation targets to double its steel production to 300 mtpa by 2030, it also needs to become a responsible steel producer. And therefore the government has put in place a national green steel policy and is looking at both demand-side and supply-side drivers for decarbonizing steel production, said union steel minister Jyotiraditya Scindia yesterday at an event in New Delhi.

Scindia said, on the supply side, the government is looking at components like energy efficiency, use of renewable energy and green hydrogen, resource efficiency, scrap usage, and carbon capture utilization and storage.

“Through renewable energy, CO2 emission in steel production can be cut by about 10-15%….The cost of green hydrogen is roughly $6/kg today. The use of green hydrogen in steel production will make economic sense only when its cost falls to around $1.5/kg,” he said.

On the occasion, the minister unveiled India’s first green steel from Saarloha Advanced Materials (Saarloha), a Kalyani group company. These green steel products, launched under the brand Kalyani FeRRESTA, are manufactured in an electric arc furnace using electricity from 100% of renewable energy sources and more than 70% recycled scrap material with zero GHG footprint.

The Kalyani Group has set up a 75 MW solar to power green steel production. It has also deployed an 8 MW wind power plant.

‘KALYANI FeRRESTA PLUS has Net Zero GHG emissions per ton of Crude steel, whereas KALYANI FeRRESTA has very low GHG emission of <0.19 tCO2e per MT of Crude Steel. Customers purchasing KALYANI FeRRESTA & KALYANI FeRRESTA PLUS steel products will get Green Steel certificates jointly issued by DNV Business Assurance India Private Limited & Saarloha which they can use to claim their Scope 3 emissions reduction,” stated Saarloha.