ENERGY FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD - World Resources Institute

(the combined production of heat and electricity).
The Elred and Plasmasmelt processes are
ironmaking processes now under development
in Sweden.
However dramatic the energy-efficiency improvements
offered by Elred and Plasmasmelt,
interest in these technologies stems not so
much from these features per se but, rather,
from the prospect of overall cost reduction and
environmental benefits. Specifically, with these
processes:
• Powdered ores can be used directly, without
having to agglomerate the ore into
sinter or pellets. (Because lower- and lowerquality
ores are being exploited, the required
preliminary processing now leaves
the ore concentrated in powdered form.)
• Ordinary steam coal can be used, greatly
reducing the need to process more costly
metallurgical coal into coke.
• Various individual operations can be
integrated.
These new ironmaking processes near commercialization
are by no means the ultimate in
improving energy use and total productivity in
the steel industry. Direct casting, direct
steelmaking, and dry steelmaking all attempt to
integrate separate operations to save capital,
labor, and energy. 47 If the dry steelmaking
technique is mastered, it will likely become the
industry norm because with powder metallurgy
the finished product is exceptionally uniform in
quality.
APPLICATIONS TO DEVELOPING COUN-
TRIES Steel demand can be expected to grow
rapidly in developing countries as they industrialize.
In expanding their steel industries,
should developing countries adopt the mature
technologies of the industrialized countries? Or
should they instead develop more advanced
technologies? Conventional wisdom holds that
developing countries cannot afford the risks
associated with new process development and
should instead stick with the tried and true.
Nevertheless, the reasons for pursuing advanced
technologies are powerful. In the steel
industry energy-saving innovations are needed
to offset new higher energy prices. Yet, the industrialized
countries are not providing advanced
technologies because their own declining
steel demand creates a poor economic
climate for innovation. (See Figures 16 and 17.)
Additionally, the comparative advantages of
using human, financial, and natural resources
are often quite different in countries of the
South than in the North. Many of the industrial
technologies commercialized in the North
are capital-intensive and labor-saving—characteristics
not well-suited to the South, where
labor is cheap and abundant and capital costly
and scarce. Many developing countries are also
blessed with largely undeveloped and relatively
low-cost hydroelectric resources, whereas most
industrialized countries must rely on more
costly thermal sources for increased electrical
capacity. Similarly, biomass is a promising
source of chemical fuels for many developing
countries, requiring decentralized development
strategies quite unlike the centralized strategies
that have been pursued by the countries rich in
fossil fuels.
For such reasons, developing countries
should examine the range of advanced technological
possibilities and pursue those compatible
with their development goals and
resources. 48 For some industrializing countries
with little coal but rich water resources, the
electricity-intensive Plasmasmelt process might
be an attractive technology. For countries with
neither of these resources but with significant
natural gas, direct-reduction ironmaking (in
which iron ore is converted into sponge iron at
temperatures below the melting point, using a
wide variety of reductants, including natural
gas) may be more appropriate. Or entirely new
technologies tailored to conditions in the South
may be preferable.
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