A world-first trial in India has successfully demonstrated a viable approach to cut emissions from steelmaking by partially replacing coal with agricultural waste.
The breakthrough offers a scalable pathway to cut emissions in one of the world’s fastest-growing industrial economies and takes the industry a step closer to green steel.
Researchers from Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have proven the approach can work at commercial scale, marking a major advance in efforts to decarbonise iron and steelmaking in a sector responsible for around one-tenth of global carbon emissions.
Using indigenously developed methods for rice husk pellets, the CSIRO team has validated sustained production of biomass-derived syngas for iron ore reduction at a large-scale commercial steelworks in India, in partnership with commercial steel innovator RESCONS Solutions Pvt. Ltd., an innovative commercial steel entity incubated at the Foundation for Science, Innovation and Development (FSID), IISc.
India’s steel sector, currently the fastest-growing globally, is projected to double its capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030 and reach 500 million tonnes by 2047. However, this rapid expansion poses a major challenge for global emissions, with India’s steel production emitting an average of 2.55 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of steel, well above the global average. The sector is responsible for around 12 per cent of India’s total emissions, largely due to a reliance on coal-based processes and an extensive fleet of small-scale rotary kiln-based direct reduced iron (DRI) production.
To address these challenges, the Indian Ministry of Steel has outlined a roadmap to achieve net zero emissions by 2070, including strategies such as transitioning to electric arc furnaces, increasing scrap use, carbon capture and storage, green hydrogen, and, crucially, utilising biomass as a replacement for coal.
Leveraging India’s abundant agricultural waste, the CSIRO-led team, with funding from the Australian Government’s India-Australia Green Steel Research Partnership, conducted a full-scale trial at Jindal Steel (previously Jindal Steel and Power Limited, JSPL) in Odisha. The team successfully blended 5 per cent and 10 per cent (energy basis) rice husk pellets into Jindal Steel’s gasifiers, achieving sustained syngas production with no loss of performance.
If adopted across India, biomass utilisation could reduce steel sector emissions by up to 50 per cent totalling approximately 357 million tonnes of CO₂ per year.
