Global and Regional Green Steel Transition: From Resource Potential to Supply Chain Re-configuration

The Growth Lab Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development.

Speakers:
Alli Devlin is a DPhil in Engineering Science Candidate at the University of Oxford.
Aidong Yang is a Professor of Engineering Science and a Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford.

Today’s steel industry is one of the top industrial emitters, responsible for ~8% of global carbon emissions. Decarbonising steelmaking is thus attracting significant attention of industrial players and policymakers, with the green transition already gaining momentum in some countries (e.g., Sweden), although most steel production is still deeply reliant on fossil fuels. This transition will be a huge undertaking, with great challenges in resource, technology, and economics to overcome. In this seminar, the authors will focus on the physical aspects of green steelmaking, sharing recent and ongoing mathematical modelling work on (1) understanding global resource potential for deploying green steel facilities, particularly addressing the availability of renewable energy and suitable iron ore, and (2) exploring potentially favourable supply chain (re-) configurations at the regional scale, taking into account a wide range of technological options and their geographical allocation. The results highlight key opportunities and challenges from technical perspectives, which will hopefully provide useful input to wider discussions about the green steel transition involving economics, policies and development agendas.

This seminar is online only. Please register in advance.