Emissions reduction

Direct and indirect emissions

The CO2 emissions from our activities can be split into direct and indirect emissions. Direct emissions are those that physically arise at our sites, for example from the combustion of gases produced in the blast furnaces during the ironmaking process. Indirect emissions are those that arise at other locations, but are associated with Corus’ activities, for example, emissions related to the generation of our purchased electricity.

Reporting boundaries

During 2007, our RD&T experts defined the boundary for calculating our CO2 emissions and this formed the basis for the work of the CCCTF. This boundary includes all direct CO2 emissions and indirect CO2 emissions related to the import and export of electricity, gas, coke and iron ore pellets.

The IISI has launched a new global steel sector approach for the collection and reporting of CO2 emissions data, which may be used in the future for the setting of commitments during the post-Kyoto period. Corus is collaborating with IISI on this initiative, and the scope and boundaries for CO2 emission reporting may change as a result of this in future reports.

Performance

Table 3 presents Corus’ total direct CO2 emissions for 2006, 2007 and 2007/08 compared to 2000.

Figure 10 shows the specific CO2 emissions of our integrated steelworks from 1990 to 2007/08 and identifies the improvement needed for us to achieve our emissions reduction targets of <1.7 t/tls by 2012 and <1.5 t/tls by 2020 (the latter a >20% reduction compared to 1990).

Efficient use of process gases

Integrated steelworks are already very efficient and opportunities to reduce CO2 emissions are limited as more than 80% of emissions from a typical integrated steelworks are irreducible process emissions. Our priority, therefore, is to utilise gases arising at our blast furnaces, coke ovens and steel plants as efficiently as possible, thereby displacing supplementary fossil fuels and electricity imports to the site.

Through optimising the use of process gases arising at our plants, we have achieved very high levels of on-site generation of electricity. In 2007, on-site generation produced almost 1,600 GWh of electrical energy. The effect of our efforts in this regard is a reduction of approximately 700,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions from the electricity generation sector.

Further emissions reduction opportunities

Above and beyond the improvements and efficiencies we have already achieved, further incremental emissions reductions are being investigated within the constraints described above. These include techniques such as burden changes at the blast furnaces, reducing slag volumes, increasing coal injection rates, and changing iron-to-steel ratios in our BOS plants.