The Task Force on Sustainable Just Transition, Government of Jharkhand and Centre for Environment and Energy Development (CEED) jointly organised a stakeholder consultation ‘Decarbonising the Sponge-Iron Industries in Jharkhand’. The main objective of the consultation was to deliberate on the pathways to decarbonise the sponge-iron sector to contribute in the process of green steel production and net-zero scenario in the state. This consultation is a part of a series of meetings being conducted by the task force with different industrial sectors and associated stakeholders to receive their concerns and aspirations on the decarbonisation process for the larger aim of creating sectoral pathways under the ambit of sustainable energy transition in the state.

Elaborating about the intent of the consultation, Mr A.K. Rastogi (IFS Retd.), Chairman of Task Force on Sustainable Just Transition said that “Industry represents a significant portion of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the state. The sponge-iron units are part of the iron-steel sector which is seen as a hard-to-abate in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and decarbonisation process. The iron-steel sector is an important contributor to the economic development of the state. Therefore, decarbonising the sponge-iron segment is crucial for the improvement of resource efficiency in the sector. In the wake of the net-zero scenario, the industry needs to shift from traditional carbon intensive technologies for iron & steel production to sustainability based and low-carbon environment friendly technologies. The decarbonisation strategies and pathways will contribute to the larger goal of sustainable energy transition in the state.’

India is one of the largest producers of sponge-iron in the world producing around 22 million tonne sponge iron. Jharkhand is one of the leading states in terms of presence of stone-iron units, which are broadly represented under the small and medium enterprises. These units largely rely on fossil fuels for operationalisation of rotary kilns and other production-related activities. The sector itself is heterogeneous and uses a wide range of equipment with often dated and inefficient technology.

Emphasising the need of sector-specific interventions, Mr Ramapati Kumar, CEO of CEED said, ‘The sectoral analysis is important to understand the existing challenges, assessing the capabilities and creating pathways. The transition to green steel production requires a convergence approach from governments, industry, financial institutions and technology demonstrators for ensuring sustainable industrial development. A pathway can assist in the phase out of older polluting facilities and bring support for the deployment of new low-carbon emissions plants for production of green steel, which will lead towards sustainable energy transition in the state.’

The technical session discussed the key solutions through engagement of experts and industry representatives. The key ideas that presented were; establishing pilot and demonstration plants to test emerging low-carbon, increasing usage of energy efficient technologies, switching over to cleaner fuels like solar, recycling of steel scrap, infrastructure support for carbon, capture, utilisation & storage and green hydrogen ecosystem, capacity building measures and provision of finance to switchover to new fuels and technologies in the sector.

The consultation was attended by the leading sponge-iron units from private sectors, MSME associations, think-tanks and clean energy solutions providers from the state. The consultation witnessed participation of senior officials of leading companies and units such as Tata Steel, Tata Power, Rungta Mines, Aadhunik Steel, Nellanchal Ispat, Narsingh Ispat, Bihar Sponge & Iron, Sidhi-Vinayak Stone, Balaji Sponge Ltd, Shah Sponge & Power Ltd. DD international & Steel, and Corporate Ispat Alloy Ltd, etc.