Project nominated for the Excellence in sustainability Steelie Award 2020
Ternium Brazil started to introduce biomethane, a biofuel from landfill gas, by replacing fossil natural gas in its stationary combustion sources in its iron and steel production processes. The Brazil site is an integrated production route, the most energy and carbon-intensive route for the steel sector.
Biogas is generated at the Seropédica landfill, the largest in Latin America, which serves around 10 million people and receives 10,000 tonnes of solid urban waste daily from Rio de Janeiro and other neighbouring municipalities. This landfill gas, rich in methane (CH4), comes from the decomposition of organic matter, which occurs in anaerobic conditions.
Ternium Brazil buys biomethane from the Seropédica landfill for its operations, a purified form of biogas (> 96% CH4), in which CO2, H2S and other contaminants have already been removed. This powerful biofuel has characteristics almost identical to fossil natural gas, thus allowing its perfect replacement in steelmaking processes, without the need for any adaptation of equipment for its application.
The expected rate of replacement of fossil natural gas is 34% related to the consumption levels of 2017, which results in the same rate of reduction of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) due to the use of this biofuel in low pressure natural gas consumers for stationary combustion purposes. This expectation of GHG emissions reduction represents 0.5% of Ternium Brazil’s annual total scope 1 emissions (site based, direct emissions) for 2017, but this will depend on the operational reality of the biofuel supply.
Ternium Brazil continues to work towards the deep decarbonisation of its processes, taking robust innovative steps regarding the use of biofuel in its operations while at the same time generating value and improving social development in their local community.