Amid growing calls for sustainable and eco-friendly products, South Korean steel giant POSCO has looked closely into ways of assessing the impact of steel manufacturing, maintenance, and its end-of-life phase.
Posco’s Finex technology is part of the steelmaker’s efforts to become an eco-efficient company. The Finex system produces molten iron directly using iron ore fines and non-choking coals, skipping a few manufacturing steps compared to conventional blast-furnace technology. This reduces capital investment, production costs, and carbon emissions.
The company added that although steelmaking consumes a huge amount of energy but it can be eco-efficient, as steel scrap is 100% recyclable. 90% of the material can be reused or remanufactured during its life time of nearly 100 years, much higher than other metals like aluminum and magnesium.
In recognition of such efforts, POSCO became the first company in the South Korea’s domestic steel industry to obtain Environmental Product Declaration certification from the Ministry of Environment last month.
According to the company, five products from POSCO — plates, wire rods, plated steel sheets (HGI), Giga steel (980DP), and high corrosion-resistant steel plates — all gained certification for seven environmental indicators: carbon footprint, resource footprint, ozone layer influence, acid rain, eutrophication, photochemical smog and water footprint.
Posco’s high-strength steel products, such as Giga steel, are also eco-efficient because they help reduce the weight of automobiles.
POSCO’s investment plans
In line with the government’s efforts to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, POSCO also plans to invest around KWR 1.07 trillion (USD 956 million) in building environment-friendly facilities by 2021, with the aim of cutting air pollutants by 35% by 2022.
As reported, the company plans to close six aging units out of a total of 21 generating units by 2021 and invest 350 billion won to build new facilities with the latest technologies. The construction of new plants will start in December after undergoing environment impact evaluations.
In the case of the remaining 15 generating units, POSCO will additionally build selective catalytic reduction systems that will significantly reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide, and the investment estimated is about KWR 330 billion. The company also plans to build 10 indoor storage facilities by 2020 to prevent dust from being released in the air with an investment of KWR 300 billion.
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