https://www.coalaction.org.uk/2023/10/09/port-talbot-steel-transition/ Campaign to end the UK's coal mining, use, & support Fri, 22 Dec 2023 12:49:58 +0000 hourly 1 https://www.coalaction.org.uk/2023/10/09/port-talbot-steel-transition/#comment-1154 Fri, 22 Dec 2023 12:49:58 +0000 https://www.coalaction.org.uk/?p=14071#comment-1154 The proposed changes at Port Talbot and Scunthorpe are not decarbonising steel production but ending production and moving to recycling steel. There is nothing wrong with recycling steel but it is likely that we will still need some new steel which will be produced elsewhere. Possibly China, India or elsewhere in the far east. It will be produced using coal (coke) and probably less efficiently than we produce it. There will therefore be at least as much CO2 emitted globally and possibly more.
We could look to producing steel in the UK using hydrogen as the reducing agent and a combination of hydrogen and electricity as the heat source. If we had sufficient non carbon electricity, or possibly even if we had not, this would reduce global CO2 emissions. It would also keep the jobs in the UK and reduce our dependence on China and other similar countries. Why are we not doing this?

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