Bhubaneswar, Dec. 9: At a time when the world was grappling with the need to meet climate targets, an industry leader on Saturday said that increased use of hydrogen in steel making could significantly reduce the carbon footprint.
“Hydrogen is a crucial component which can help the steel industry transition to a more environment-friendly future as it was crucial for reducing emissions throughout the steelmaking process,” Mr. T.V. Narendran, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Steel, said.
The steel industry is a major emitter of greenhouse gases accounting for about 8 per cent of the carbon footprint worldwide, he said adding Tata Steel was committed to a more sustainable and environment-friendly future.
Mr. Narendran was speaking as the chief guest at the inauguration of the three-day annual convention of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) which began at the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University (SOA) here.
The inaugural session was chaired by INAE President Dr. Indranil Manna. Prof. Damodar Acharya, Chairman of SOA’s Advisory Board and Chairman of INAE’s Bhubaneswar chapter and Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda, Vice-Chancellor of SOA, welcomed the members.
INAE, an autonomous professional body, comprises India’s most distinguished engineers, engineer-scientists and technologists covering the entire spectrum of engineering disciplines.
Pointing out that the transition to green technology in India was a challenge, Mr. Narendran said it was needed to meet climate targets while the transition from coal to hydrogen was being seen as the future of steel production.
Tata Steel had initiated a pilot project at its Jamshedpur plant to assess the practicality of using hydrogen as a reducing agent in steel making. The company aimed to blend hydrogen with carbon to create a more sustainable alternative to the traditionally carbon heavy steel production process, he said.
India was the second largest producer of steel in the world after China which had scaled up its steel production. The Baosteel China company alone produced more steel than what is manufactured in India, Mr. Narendran said.
In India, he said, most of the capacity addition in steel production was happening in the eastern part of the country which faced operational and technical challenges to go green. Tata Steel has its steel plants at Jamshedpur and Kalinga Nagar in Odisha.
Mr. Narendran said there was a great potential for growth in the steel industry in recycling. “In fact, recycling may surpass mining in the next few decades,” he said.
In his presidential address, Prof. Manna, who is the Vice-Chancellor of Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, said that INAE had 919 Fellows in India besides 99 Foreign Fellows. Forty eight more Fellows, chosen in a stringent three stage selection process, would be inducted during the convention, he said.
A book titled ‘Diverse Space Applications’ authored by Dr. B.N. Suresh, former President of INAE and Chancellor, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, was released on the occasion. Lt. Col. Sobhit Rai, Member Secretary of INAE, proposed the vote of thanks.
The three-day event has been jointly organised by SOA, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar and Bhubaneswar chapter of INAE.