Tata Steel’s Port Talbot plant is testing how to melt far more scrap metal in its basic oxygen furnace (BOF) without destabilising the process or degrading steel quality. Steelmaking generates about 8% of global CO₂ emissions, and 80% of that comes from the blast furnace and BOF stages that turn iron ore into liquid steel. Replacing iron ore with scrap steel cuts those emissions sharply, because scrap is already refined metal. Some international plants already achieve 20% lower carbon emissions than Port Talbot by using high scrap proportions. This project tackles the practical barriers that currently limit scrap use: hitting the correct tapping temperature, controlling contamination from elements like aluminium and phosphorus, and managing how long scrap takes to melt. If successful, the work will help Port Talbot’s new scrap pre-heating lance operate at full effectiveness, maximising the carbon savings from each tonne of steel. The research also feeds into a broader transition—the same fundamental questions about scrap composition and melting behaviour apply to electric arc furnaces, which the UK steel industry may adopt more widely in the future. The result could be lower-carbon steel for cars, buildings, and infrastructure, without compromising the material’s strength or consistency.
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Key Competitive Driver The largest technical challenge approaching Tata Steel UK in the next 20 years is to decarbonise product. 80% of CO2 in steel production is generated in the process steps leading up to casting. The current process technology portfolio has overall similarities to others internationally which achieve up to 20% lower carbon emission production than the average at port-talbot due to the incorporation of high proportions of ferrous scrap both in the BF and BOF. This project aims to add to the body of investigations developing knowledge on the potential of higher ferrous scrap proportion use now, through transition periods and into potential future steel production conditions for the business. Although aspects such as residual levels will become critical factors in the application of scrap in the production of strip steels, the current control factors which limit scrap usage on a daily basis in PT are: 1. Reaching tapping temperature (1o average gain = £#.##/t/a) 2. Maintaining quality of steel within the BOF - process control such as slag properties and steel cleanness (Al, Si, P and S contamination) 3. Time taken for scrap to melt (Size, shape and packing) PT is investing in a new scrap pre-heating lance which will enable use of increased scrap volume in the BOF, however this has the potential to have several negative impacts including increased in process time, high levels of scrap oxidation in the vessel, and the formation of intermediate scrap skulls which may impact melting times negatively. With this in mind this project intends to focus on the potential of scrap usage for BOF process stability in order to maximize gain of the heating lance instalment and limit potential negative impacts. In addition, this specific institute is chosen to deliver the project due to the expertise of identified personal, synergistic activities such as SUSTAIN, I-space, TFI-Demo, SWITCH...etc, the locality of training increasing likely hood to inhouse newly skilled personal and the leverage of funding from EMR to fund a synergistic studentship exploring fundamental questions for the application of scrap in EAF processing. Objectives: 1. To understand the composition of strategic high volume scrap grades such as heavy basic and incinerator scrap 2. To re-asses the effect of scrap composition on BOF temp after interaction with the pre-treatment lance. 3. Develop understanding for scrap basket mix importance under variable load volumes and with/without pre-heating 4. To inform the steelmaking VIU model as to the better application of scrap grades under new working conditions of pre-heating and high scrap volume use in the steelmaking process.
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