Investigation topic 4: The sustainability of a commercial product or material
In Australia, new materials that are useful for society tend to be produced through a linear economy in which products are purchased, used and then thrown away. Increasingly, manufacturing companies are moving towards a circular economy, which seeks to reduce the environmental impacts of production and consumption while enabling economic growth through more productive use of natural resources and creation of less waste.
Research questions that may be explored in this investigation include:
· What is ‘green steel’ and what are the implications of its production for human health and the environment?
What is steel?
- BritannicaThis encyclopedic page includes information explaining steel, its properties, how it is produced, the history and data regarding "world steel production"
- World steel OrganisationThis link takes you to the "world steel in figures" page containing statistics, graphs and tables on numerous aspects of steel production.
Australian university impacts Green Steel and its technologies
- UNSW SMaRT CentreLinks to videos and articles explaining breakthroughs and research in Green Steel
CSIRO
- Forging our future in green steelThis smart Australian technology is set to transform global steelmaking by making a cement product from blast furnace waste, saving water, recovering energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Articles
- The ConversationFind out about steel; how its made, recycled and DRI with statistics/data. Embedded with links to other articles like this one with some good infographics.
- BHP"Australian multinational mining, metals, and natural gas petroleum public company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia."
- Grattan Institute - Start with Steel"But lower emissions steel is still not ‘greensteel’. For this you need a carbon-free reductant. The best candidate is pure hydrogen–using it to make steel leaves only water as a byproduct."
WWF Finland
The World Counts statistics
Changes in production of steel
Katha's ePoint. (2021). How does Fossil-Free Steel Production work? [Green Steel | Hydrogen Steelmaking] [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BohM7L8BMz0
What is ‘green’ steel and aluminium?
Seeing green: low carbon steel and aluminium target reduced emissions
Kikken, N. (2021, January 20). Seeing green: low carbon steel and aluminium target reduced emissions - ECOS. ECOS. https://ecos.csiro.au/seeing-green-low-carbon-steel-and-aluminium-target-reduced-emissions/
Human health
- SDGs in the EU Steel Sector: A Critical Review of Sustainability Initiatives and Approaches"Other critical environmental impacts are associated with steel production, such as water consumption: according to Gao et al., in China, a ton of steel consumes on average 7–8 m3, while, in other developed countries, this is 3–4 m3 due to outdated technology and plant age [17]. Several chemical compounds, such as ammonia, cyanide, benzene, naphthalene and chlorides, can be found as pollutants generated by steel processes [9]. Other criticalities are related to air pollution [18,19,20], water pollution [21,22] and the evaluation of the consequences of steel activities on human health [23,24,25,26]."
- CHECK SPRINGER ACCESSHuman health risk assessment of arsenic downstream of a steel plant in Isfahan, Iran: a case study
Periodic Table for Biologists
