Steelmaking
A new era of electric steelmaking
Recycled UK steel reforged into new steel. Electric arc furnaces can use 100% recycled steel and, according to World Steel Association data, produce significantly lower emissions than traditional blast furnace steelmaking.
Electric arc furnace
01Feedstock
The raw material is already here.
Recycled UK steel reforged into new steel. Electric arc furnaces can use 100% recycled steel and, according to World Steel Association data, produce significantly lower emissions than traditional blast furnace steelmaking.
02Melting
Melted by electricity at 1,600 °C.
Graphite electrodes strike an electric arc through the recycled steel and melt it. An electric arc furnace can run on up to 100% recycled steel, against up to 30% in the blast furnace route, according to the World Steel Association.
Electric power
Melting is driven by electricity from the UK grid, which continues to decarbonise.
No blast furnace
No blast furnace, coke ovens or sinter plant on site.
Productive and flexible
Electric arc furnaces offer improved productivity and flexibility in meeting national steel needs.
Power
Powered by electricity. Built for renewables.
Our electric arc furnace runs on electricity. Greensteel’s advanced power electronics allow it to draw power from the grid and make use of renewable energy from wind and solar, supported by battery storage.
03Compare
A different route to steel.
Traditional blast furnace steelmaking relies on iron ore, coal and coke. Electric arc furnaces use electricity to melt recycled steel, offering a lower-emissions route to making new steel. Greensteel is bringing that model to the UK.
Blast furnace route
Global average
- Iron source
- Iron ore, reduced with coke
- Main energy
- Coal and coke
- Recycled steel in the charge
- Up to 30%
- Coke ovens and sinter plant
- Required
- t CO2 per tonne
- 2.34
- t CO2e per tonne, with methane, nitrous oxide and upstream mining
- 2.66
Electric arc furnace, recycled steel
Global average
- Iron source
- Recycled steel, melted
- Main energy
- Electricity
- Recycled steel in the charge
- Up to 100%
- Coke ovens and sinter plant
- None
- t CO2 per tonne
- 0.69
- t CO2e per tonne, with methane, nitrous oxide and upstream mining
- 0.71
Greensteel UK
Planned
- Iron source
- Recycled UK steel; iron units where a grade requires
- Main energy
- Electricity from the UK grid
- Recycled steel in the charge
- Principally recycled steel
- Coke ovens and sinter plant
- None
- t CO2 per tonne
- In our verified Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)
- t CO2e per tonne
- In every passport
04Manufacturing
From recycled steel to finished product.
On one site, recycled steel is melted, refined, cast and reforged into finished sections, round bars and sheet piles, with every cast tested against specification.
- 01Electric arc furnaceMelts recycled steel, and iron units where required, with an electric arc between graphite electrodes.
- 02Ladle furnaceAdjusts chemistry and temperature, and removes impurities, to the grade specification.
- 03Continuous casterSolidifies liquid steel into blooms, billets and beam blanks, the feedstock for the mill.
- 04Section millReheats the feedstock and reforges it, stand by stand, into sections, round bars and sheet piles.
- 05Testing and certificationTensile and impact testing, dimensional inspection, an inspection certificate to BS EN 10204 and a digital passport for every cast.
05Carbon and traceability
Measured. Verified. Declared.
Every product will have an Environmental Product Declaration to BS EN 15804, independently verified, and a digital passport that carries its data. No Greensteel reduction figure is published until it has been verified.
What the passport records. Cast, product, grade and standard; mill and date of manufacture; feedstock and recycled content; electricity source; verified emissions, modules A1 to A3; inspection certificate and Declaration of Performance.
- Product
- Sheet pile, S355GP
- Standard
- BS EN 10248-1
- Made in
- United Kingdom
- Route
- Electric arc furnace
- Feedstock
- Recycled UK steel
- Certificate
- BS EN 10204 3.1
- Emissions, modules A1 to A3
- Verified for every tonne
06End of life
Built to last. Ready to be remade.
Steel serves for decades. At the end of its life it returns to the furnace to be made into steel again, and its passport records exactly what it is made of.
