Emissions-saving furnace fires up at Glenbrook Steel Mill

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): A new electric furnace that will save the country a million tonnes of emissions a year has been fired up at Glenbrook Steel Mill.

The electric arc furnace, operated by New Zealand Steel, has just produced its first commercial batch of steel, two years after the project was given the green light.

The furnace replaces two of the four coal-fired kilns at the mill just south of Auckland, and will produce steel from recycled scrap.

Chief executive Robin Davies said once the furnace was operating at full capacity, it would nearly halve the mill's carbon emissions.

"[That] is effectively one percent of New Zealand's total emissions, so it's a very high-impact project in a New Zealand context."

The furnace was one of the largest projects funded by the previous government's industrial decarbonisation fund, GIDI, receiving a $140 million subsidy.

Bluescope Steel, New Zealand Steel's Australian owners, invested the remaining $160m.

The project would not have been financially viable yet without that co-investment, Davies said.

"It's intended to help the country reach its international emissions targets, and it allowed us to make the transition earlier than we would otherwise have done so."

The new furnace would also slash the number of free carbon credits New Zealand Steel claims from the government every year,

The industrial allocation scheme allows emissions-intensive exporters to dodge having to pay for their emissions, to help them maintain a competitive advantage.

New Zealand Steel has been the scheme's biggest beneficiary for over a decade, receiving 1.6 million free credits in 2024 - more than twice the next-largest beneficiary, Tīwai aluminium smelter.

The furnace's first batch of steel was produced very slowly, taking about five hours to complete, Davies said.

Once it was operating at full production levels, in about three months' time, that would decrease to 38 minutes a batch.

The furnace would also allow the country to avoid sending so much of its scrap steel overseas for recycling, he said.

Two-thirds of New Zealand's scrap steel would now go to Glenbrook.

The advantage of the furnace was New Zealand's high levels of renewable electricity, Davies said.

"It allows us, with recycled scrap, to produce very low-embodied-carbon steel - some of the lowest in the world - because of the renewable grid."

Over time, the company would investigate ways to transfer the rest of its steel-making to lower-emissions processes.

That included hosting a demonstration plant at Glenbrook, operated by start-up CullBeck, that uses hydrogen to create steel.

Courtesy: www.rnz.co.nz