Emirates Steel Leading the Way on Carbon Capture
Recent construction news stories have related to UK Carbon Capture Schemes (CCS), as the UK pushes ahead with a process of de-carbonisation and drives toward a net-zero economy. But did you know that Emirates Steel, for whom Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd is the exclusive strategic partner and sheet pile supplier in the UK and Ireland, has been a pioneer for CCS?
For Emirates Steel, based in Abu Dhabi, carbon capture is nothing new. It was a partner in the world’s first fully commercial carbon capture steel project, which started in November 2016, after four years in the planning. Its CCS scheme, in partnership with the Al Reyadah Carbon Capture, Utility and Storage Facility, has become the industry blueprint of how to tackle a carbon capture scheme within, not just the steel industry, but others too.
As far back as 2012, it was recognised that CO2 generated by iron and steel manufacturing is a major contributor to global CO2 emissions, producing 9% of global energy-related transmissions, due to having such a carbon intensive production process, reliant on fossil fuels, particularly carbon.1 However, it has taken the Emirates Steel project to show how to utilise carbon capture in a truly dynamic way within this sector.2
In a project which also involved Costain3, CO2 was captured from a Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) plant within Emirates Steel’s production facility in Abu Dhabi. The project leaders, Al Reyadah (the Abu Dhabi Carbon Capture Company and the Middle East’s first specialised company focused on exploration and development of commercial CCUs) had identified Emirates Steel as a perfect choice for their first project, largely due to its proximity to the ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) oil fields.
The aim of the project was to enhance oil and gas production, by using CO2 to facilitate enhanced oil recovery (EOR), whilst also helping to reduce the UAE’s carbon emissions. The project was focused on reducing carbon footprint, in line with ADNOC’s 2030 strategy and Abu Dhabi Vision 2030.
The project recognised that up to 800,000 tons of CO2 could be captured from the Emirates Steel manufacturing complex and transferred to the Al Reyadah plant for compression and dehydration, before being metered and exported through 42 km of pipeline for EOR at the ADNOC oilfields of Rumaitha and Bab.
Capturing such a level of CO2 was said to be equivalent to removing the emissions of 170,000 cars from the atmosphere. Achieving this required the project to create the highest pressure (240 bar) CO2 pipeline in the world, equipping this with pipeline safety systems, including telecoms, SCADA (Supervisor Control and Data Acquisition) software, CCTV and leak detection, and to operate a 6-stage centrifugal compressor.
The results were impressive, leading many papers to be written about the innovative and industry-leading project. The waste product (CO2), a bi-product of manufacturing production within the Emirates Steel plant and up to 99% rich4, was compressed in two stages, to prevent carbonic acid entering pipelines. The first was through the use of a rotating machine, to 60 bar, which turned the CO2 into a liquid and dense state. The second was through the use of reciprocal compression, to take the matter to 245 bar. This was pushed down the pipelines and injected into oil-bearing rocks, as part of the EOR process. The pressure was proven to push more oil out of the oilfield, increasing the yield and maximising the oil reserves.
Rather than having to buy expensive methane gases, to perform the EOR process, otherwise wasted and environmentally damaging CO2 was used as a sustainable alternative, in a project that proved the efficacy of CCS in steel production and which improved oil recovery by 10%.
Being involved with such a stellar sustainability-focused project is very much in-keeping with Emirates Steel’s green credentials and the company received a Certificate of Recognition, as a result of its participation in the project. The company is a member of the Worldsteel Climate Action Programme and its Integrated Management System is certificated to the highest international standards under the CARES Sustainable Constructional Steel Scheme. It also holds the BES 6001 standard for Responsible Sourcing of Construction Projects and was one of the first 50 companies in the world to be verified for the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building rating system5, with its products conforming with local and global green buildings systems.
Its Green Initiatives project never stands still and there is continual collaboration with world-renowned organisations who share the desire to secure ongoing environmental and climate change gains.
The most recent example of partnership working to this end, has been the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Emirates Steel and TAQA (Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC). The latter is one of the largest listed integrated utilities in the Middle East.
The agreement, announced on August 3, 2021, is intended to deliver a large-scale green hydrogen project, to enable the very first green steel production in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region.
The two partners will consider how to utilise green hydrogen to optimise clean steel production and low-carbon steel manufacturing. The use of green hydrogen should not only result in a clean and sustainable manufacturing process but also help save energy. Production costs and carbon emissions will both be lowered.
As Engineer Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi, CEO of Emirates Steel, said, this is enabling the company to:
“write a new chapter in our journey towards placing sustainability and industrial innovation at the core of our technical and operational activities.”
So, whilst CCS may seem new to the UK, Sheet Piling UK supplies steel sheet piles manufactured by a partner who has had been using CO2 waste and carbon capture in a highly sustainable and informed way for nearly six years. It also has a partner now leading the way with the use of green hydrogen in steel production.
The message is that, when you purchase or hire steel sheet piles from Sheet Piling UK, you can benefit from steel infrastructure solutions that have been produced as sustainably as possible and whose manufacturer will never stand still when it comes to lowering the environmental impacts of steel manufacturing.
References
- https://www.globalccsinstitute.com/news-media/insights/ccs-a-necessary-technology-for-decarbonising-the-steel-sector/
- https://www.cslforum.org/cslf/sites/default/files/documents/AbuDhabi2017/AbuDhabi17-TW-Sakaria-Session2.pdf
- https://www.costain.com/news/news-releases/carbon-capture-creates-future-opportunities/
- https://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/sccs/project-info/622
- https://www.taqa.com/press-releases/greensteel/
NOTES TO EDITORS
Sheet Piling (UK) Limited is one of the UK's leading piling contractors. Owning and operating a comprehensive range of specialist piling equipment Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd also carry extensive stocks of new and used piles enabling rapid reaction to any urgent requirements or emergency situations.