India may look at having a procurement policy to generate demand for ‘green steel’ and get the industry to adopt environmentally sustainable manufacturing, steel secretary Sandeep Poundrik said, signalling a hefty push for decarbonization.
Poundrik said a set of incentives may also be considered, particularly for small steel producers, to enable industry to raise the bar on environmentally sound practices.
As an implementation strategy, the steel ministry will launch a green steel mission soon, on the lines of green hydrogen mission, which will have components of policy, incentives and the way forward, Poundrik said.
Steel and heavy industries minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who released a report said that as one of the world's leading steel producers India’s steel sector is the backbone of country’s industrial strength and drives economic growth across key sectors such as construction, infrastructure and manufacturing.
The 14 task force reports suggested that the country needs both demand and supply side initiatives to facilitate greening of the steel sector. It said the ministry is keen to generate demand for green steel in India by developing the framework for a Green Public Procurement (GPP) policy for steel, which could then be taken up by the finance \ministry for development and action.
The report recommended that the ministry of steel set up an agency along the lines of Energy Efficiency Services Ltd, a ministry of power promoted energy services company, for bulk procurement of green steel to facilitate consumption in both public and private procurement. It also suggested prioritizing the development of an ecosystem for green steel production and consumption by creating a robust MRV (measurement, reporting and verification) system for emissions accounting, a registry of green steel production and consumption, and tracking of green steel certification.
The report has also called for government support to pilot projects across the three main end-use applications of green hydrogen -- hydrogen uptake in the blast furnace, hydrogen blending in shaft furnace and a 100% hydrogen-based DRI (Direct Reduced Iron) plant.
Further, it said the steel ministry may coordinate with other ministries to extend benefits provided to green hydrogen projects in the refinery and fertilizer sector to the steel industry as well.
The Ministry of Steel may also develop experimental blast furnaces and shaft furnaces in India for trials with hydrogen injection. Further, the efforts at international and multilateral collaborations may be accelerated to derive maximum benefits for accelerating the adoption of green hydrogen in the Indian steel industry, the report said.
The 14 task forces on decarbonization covered crucial areas such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, green hydrogen, biochar and carbon capture technology, while delving with policy levers of green steel taxonomy, CO2 monitoring, and green steel demand generation.
