Comparative life cycle assessment of fossil fuel and renewable energy use in liquid steel production in the Turkish iron and steel industry

The steel industry is an energy-intensive sector that requires the development of sustainable production practices due to the magnitude of its environmental impacts. This study was conducted to compare the environmental impacts associated with the use of fossil fuels and solar energy in the production of 1 ton of liquid steel using an Electric Arc Furnace (EAF). The system boundary in the study was defined as gate-to-gate, with the functional unit chosen as 1 ton of liquid steel. The data used were collected from reports published by internationally recognized organizations in the steel industry, as well as recent academic studies and literature on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The Life Cycle Assessment was conducted in accordance with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards, with the CML Baseline method used to calculate environmental impacts, and OpenLCA software employed for the analyses. The results show that the use of renewable energy significantly reduces emissions that cause environmental pollution, whereas the use of fossil fuels leads to an increase in these emissions. In both production processes, those using renewable energy and fossil fuels, marine ecotoxicity was identified as the most significant impact category, while abiotic depletion was found to have the least environmental impact. The findings suggest that the use of renewable energy sources makes a significant contribution to sustainable production in the steel industry.