Decarbonization

Steel is the backbone of our modern civilization, but the production of one ton of steel emits an average of almost two tons of CO2. Therefore, the steel industry is responsible for about 8% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions.

Steelmakers are pushing forward the transition from coal-based steelmaking to completely new, carbon-neutral processes based on renewable energy.  

This does not only require investments into new equipment like DRI plants and electric arc furnaces. Key requirements are even more accurate timing of all production processes and a much higher level of flexibility.

Very accurate timing is needed in order to move high quality steel production from the conventional coal-based production route to the new electric arc furnace based production route. Efficient EAF based production comes with much more complex paths through secondary metallurgy than conventional BF-BOF based steelmaking.

Extra flexibility is needed because the coal is replaced by electricity as an energy source. And renewable power generation leads to frequent fluctuations in the electricity prices.

Smart Steel Technologies builds advanced production planning, scheduling and process optimization software. Systems supplied by SST often act as primary, mission-critical components in steel production.

At their core, these systems optimize planning, scheduling and execution of steel production using modern mathematical optimization, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Each SST system is built on a thorough understanding of metallurgy and decades of practical experience in steel production.

SST's systems fulfill the company's mission: to make steel production more cost efficient and more environmentally friendly at the same time.