Heat recovery and use in steel plants: the example of SIJ in Slovenia

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Narrative

By participating in two different Horizon 2020 projects, the Slovenian steel producer SIJ managed to decrease GHG emissions through the recovery and use of excess process heat. At its location in Jesenice SIJ, in collaboration with the CREATORS project consortium, recovers process heat and feeds it into the local district heating network. At SIJ´s location in Ravne such "industrial symbiosis" is already practiced for several years. Here additional heat recovery was achieved with the support of the ETEKINA project consortium, and the heat is now refed into the production process, thereby increasing the energy efficiency of that process and reducing fossil fuel use. While SIJ is still far away from decarbonizing its operations, the efficient use of (waste) heat is a necessary step on the path towards climate neutrality.

Financial data

Horizon 2020: ETEKINA € 5 539 612,25 (of which € 4 617 677,13 from EU) CREATORS € 7 247 500 (of which € 5 350 487,50 from EU) Funding was only partly used for the pilots of SIJ in Slovenia.

Recommendations

Decarbonisation of industry will not work by merely switching fuels to renewable energy and other low-carbon energy sources at current production levels (let alone if production is increased). A necessary first step is that energy consumption of industry is significantly decreased. In CEE still massive amounts of low-grade industrial heat are simply dumped. By supporting heat recovery and reuse projects large emissions reductions can be achieved at low costs.