India: Tata Steel starts trial for continuous injection of CBM in BF to cut emissions

Tata Steel has initiated trial for the continuous injection of coal bed methane (CBM) gas in one of the blast furnaces at its Jamshedpur works. This process is expected to reduce the coke rate by 10 kg /tonne of hot metal (10kg/thm), equivalent to reducing 33 kg of CO2 per tonne of crude steel. The trial will take place over the next few weeks.
It is to be noted that Tata Steel is the first steel producer in the world to use CBM as an injectant.

CBM primarily contains 98% of methane along with trace amounts of other gases, extracted from underground coal reservoirs. The eastern region in India is blessed with abundant resources of CBM. This provides a promising opportunity logistically and economically to leverage the use of CBM for injection purposes.

Uttam Singh, vice-president, iron making, Tata Steel, said, "Technologies to decarbonise steel at scale are not ready yet. Tata Steel has undertaken various technology initiatives, including pilots and trials, to explore new and scalable solutions for decarbonisation. This initiative of CBM injection in the blast furnace will provide us with useful insights into blast furnace operation with hydrogen-based injectants and help reduce emissions. We are on a mission to bring down the CO2 emissions to 1.8 tonne of CO2 per tonne of crude steel by 2030."

The company is continuously investing in breakthrough technologies to achieve the highest environmental performance standards through process improvements, efficient raw materials and resource management, higher utilisation of by-products, life-cycle assessments of products and more.

More such developments of the company include:

• Setting up India's first steel recycling plant in Haryana.
  
  
• Using electric vehicles for transporting of finished steel.
  
  
• Establishing India's first plant for CO2 capture from blast furnace gas at Jamshedpur.