November 25th, 2021
With almost 30 participants from Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic and Germany, the annual meeting took place in Düsseldorf on November 25th. In the roughly three-hour meeting there were very interesting lectures, initially by Dr. Juchmann from Salzgitter Flachstahl AG. He reported on the company's activities related to the decarbonisation process and the transformation of steel production, in particular on the SALCOS project at Salzgitter. SALCOS is based on direct reduction with green hydrogen and natural gas. He outlined the company's transformation process and Salzgitter's plans by 2045 to save up to 95 percent CO2 in the final expansion stage. In doing so, Dr. Juchmann also reported about the development of supply and demand for energy from renewable sources and green hydrogen. He presented various Salzgitter projects in order to cover the corresponding demand. Dr. Juchmann assumes that a reduction in CO2 of 97% will increase the price of a ton of crude steel by 36% to 61%.
The second lecture on the topic of climate neutrality and decarbonisation was the contribution of Dr. Buddenberg and Mr. Zelit from C.D. Wälzholz. They gave a lecture on the subject of the calculation of current and future carbon footprint. First, they presented the various general calculation methods and then described the company's internal approach - a product-related calculation of the CO2 footprint and the so-called 'cradle-to-gate' approach. A working group on these topics about carbon footprint and decarbonisation in the steel (processing) industry shall be established.
In the meeting Mr. Schönemeyer reported on the subject of the FMP (Ferrous Metals Processing) BREF. The final publication is expected for 2022. He outlined relevant aspects for the cold rolling sector. For example, that batch annealing is not rated as a combustion plant. If companies are currently planning to change things in annealing they should contact Mr. Schönemeyer for the details of the BREF. A separate meeting will take place when the Final BREF is accepted and published without all corrections.
Regarding the revision of the standard EN DIN 10132, Mr. Brachthäuser was able to announce the successful completion and the final publication of the revision. He has offered various training courses for this purpose (in English and German). Mr. Kunkel took on the task of saying goodbye to Mr. Brachthäuser, as he has been retiring from his job at C.D. Wälzholz. Mr. Brachthäuser has successfully led the standardisation group for years and was also significantly involved in the revision of all standards. We would like to thank him again for his competent support and many years of good cooperation!