• Product catalogue
  •  
  •  
  •  

From Australian iron ore to green steel: the opportunity for technology-driven decarbonisation

Australian iron ore is predominantly exported and used for steelmaking internationally. However, steelmaking is an energy- and carbon-intensive heavy industry, and its electrification in the coming decades will likely disrupt the existing iron ore–steel value chains. Green steel—produced using hydrogen and electricity from renewable energy sources—presents both opportunities and challenges for Australia. Indeed, with abundant renewable energy potential and iron-ore resources, Australia could lead this global transformation. Here, we examine the interrelationships between the Australian iron-ore industry, the production of green-hydrogen from renewable energy sources, and an emergent green steelmaking process. In particular, we undertake detailed case studies to estimate current green steel production costs within two regions; the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia and the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. While existing technology is not well suited to Australian hematite ores, our analysis highlights the site-specific competitiveness of small-scale, magnetite-fed, off-grid operations. The results underscore the advantages of a well-optimised system in decreasing hydrogen and energy storage requirements, and decreasing production costs. While our results also suggest that grid-connected projects could reduce costs through flexible operation, more work is required to understand the limitations of these conclusions. The results underscore the need to develop technologies to utilise hematite ores in green steelmaking, but also highlight the opportunity for this emerging industry to commercialise Australia’s magnetite resources.


<b>Citation: </b>Wang C., Walsh S. D. C., Haynes M. W., Weng Z., Feitz A., Summerfield D., & Lutalo I., 2022. From Australian iron ore to green steel: the opportunity for technology-driven decarbonisation. In: Czarnota, K. (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/147005

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2022-07-05
Date (Publication)
2022-08-07T23:01:40
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/147005

Citation identifier
Digital Object Identifier/https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/147005

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Author

Wang, C.

Monash University chang.wang@monash.edu External Contact
Author

Walsh, S.D.C.

External Contact
Author

Haynes, M.

MEG Internal Contact
Author

Weng, Z.

MEG Internal Contact
Author

Feitz, A.

MEG Internal Contact
Author

Summerfield, D.

MEG Internal Contact
Author

Lutalo, I.

Monash University External Contact
Publisher

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Purpose

Exploring For The Future Extended abstract

Status
Completed
Point of contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Point of contact

Haynes, M.

MEG Internal Contact
Resource provider

Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division

External Contact
Spatial representation type
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information

Extent

Extent

N
S
E
W


Maintenance and update frequency
Not planned

Resource format

Title

Product data repository: Various Formats

Website

Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes

theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
  • CHEMICAL SCIENCES

  • EARTH SCIENCES

  • ECONOMICS

  • ENGINEERING

Project
  • Exploring for the Future

Project
  • EFTF

Project
  • Economic Fairways

Theme
  • Iron ore

Theme
  • Green steel

Theme
  • Hydrogen

Keywords
  • Australia's Resources Framework

Keywords
  • Published_External

Resource constraints

Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title

CC-BY

Edition

4.0

Website

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
License
Other constraints

(c) Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2022

Resource constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Distributor

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
OnLine resource

Extended Abstract for download (pdf) [2.1 MB]

Extended Abstract for download (pdf) [2.1 MB]

Distribution format
  • pdf

Resource lineage

Statement

This publication was produced as part of Geoscience Australia's Exploring for the Future Program. It was presented at the Exploring for the Future 2022 Showcase.

Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security Classification System

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/5377741d-ece0-4e01-b87e-6bf49da11c03

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Owner

Haynes, M

Internal Contact
Point of contact

Haynes, M.

MEG Internal Contact

Type of resource

Resource scope
Document
Name

EFTF Extended Abstract

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/147005

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/5167d912-6784-4371-9938-3931e84ca6f1

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/5377741d-ece0-4e01-b87e-6bf49da11c03

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/dashboard/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/5377741d-ece0-4e01-b87e-6bf49da11c03

Date info (Creation)
2019-04-08T01:55:29
Date info (Revision)
2019-04-08T01:55:29

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

Australia's Resources Framework EFTF Economic Fairways Exploring for the Future Green steel Hydrogen Iron ore
theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
CHEMICAL SCIENCES EARTH SCIENCES ECONOMICS ENGINEERING

Provided by

Access to the portal
Read here the full details and access to the data.

Associated resources

Not available


  •  
  •  
  •