The Spanish metallurgical company Sidenor has launched a large-scale investment plan for the decarbonization of its plant in the city of Basauri, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the energy efficiency of production processes. The company’s efforts are being implemented under the PERTE de Descarbonización Industrial 2024 program.
This is reported by Finway
Electrification and CO2 emissions reduction
Sidenor’s plan encompasses two main directions: modernization of equipment through the electrification of part of the production processes and the implementation of digital technologies for energy consumption management. The company is convinced that these changes will enhance its resilience, competitiveness, and compliance with European environmental standards.
As part of the first project, Sidenor is replacing steam boilers that operated on natural gas with modern mechanical vacuum pumps powered by electricity. The new equipment will be used in the steel degassing area of the steelmaking process, which will allow for a complete abandonment of gas use at this stage of production.
“Electricity for the pumps will be supplied from renewable sources, which is expected to prevent an increase in indirect emissions after the electrification of the process.”
According to Sidenor’s estimates, the implementation of this project will enable annual savings of about 35 thousand MWh of natural gas and reduce emissions by more than 6 thousand tons of CO2 equivalent. Emissions associated with the VD and VOD lines will be virtually reduced to zero.
Digitalization and optimization of energy consumption
The second direction involves the digitalization of energy consumption. An online monitoring system for electricity and gas consumption at various stages of production will be implemented at the plant. The project includes the installation of new meters and the development of predictive models based on artificial intelligence. This will allow real-time tracking of energy resource consumption, timely detection of deviations, optimization of the enterprise’s operations, and identification of additional opportunities for energy savings.
It is expected that through digitalization, Sidenor will save over 3.6 thousand MWh of gas and about 3.2 thousand MWh of electricity annually. This will further reduce emissions by approximately 1 thousand tons of CO2 equivalent.
Both projects are components of Sidenor’s larger decarbonization strategy at the Basauri site, which has received support under the PERTE de Descarbonización Industrial 2024. The program is being implemented by the Ministry of Industry and Tourism of Spain with financial support from the European Union through the NextGenerationEU mechanism.