A detailed model of an integrated steel production plant (including sintering and cokery) was developed at ifeu in recent years. In addition to the actual steelworks, it include upstream chain processes for the production and processing of iron ore and alloys. Moreover, both conventional steel production via basic oxygen steelmaking in a blast furnace and (secondary) steelmaking in an electric arc furnace may be considered. Downstream processes such as casting, hot and cold rolling for the production of semi-finished casting products (e.g. thin sheet metal) or surface finishing may also be included. The model allocates performance to allow eco-profiling of different intermediates or final products, e.g. crude steel, hot strip (different alloys), reinforcement steel, tinplate, piping as well as different quality grades of thin sheet metal (hot-dip galvanised, electrolytically-plated or coated with zinc, coated).
The parameters of all processes are highly detailed and may be modified and adapted to a wide range of different scenarios. The input data for the central processes in the model were derived from primary data available from original research. The process data for the production of iron ore and alloy metals are based on extensive research to complement and update existing Ecoinvent data sets.
