As various regions around the world implement carbon taxes, we assert that the competitiveness of steel products in the marketplace will shift according to individual manufacturers’ ability to reduce CO₂ emissions as measured by cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). This study was performed by using LCA and cost estimate research to compare the CO₂ emissions and the additional cost applied to the production of various decarbonized materials used in sheet for automotive industry applications using the bending stiffness-based weight reduction factor. The pre-pandemic year 2019 was used as a baseline for cost estimates. This paper discusses the future cost scenarios based on carbon taxes and hydrogen cost. The pathways to decarbonize steel and alternative materials such as aluminum and reinforced polymer composites were evaluated. Normalized global warming potential (nGWP) estimates were calculated assuming inputs from the current USA electricity grid, and a hypothetical renewables-based grid. For a current electricity grid mix in the US (with 61% fossil fuels, 19% nuclear, 20% renewables), the lowest nGWP was found to be secondary aluminum and 100% recycled scrap melting of steel. This is followed by the natural gas Direct Reduced Iron–Electric Arc Furnace (DRI-EAF) route with carbon capture and the Blast Furnace-Basic Oxygen Furnace (BF-BOF) route with carbon capture. From the cost point of view, the current cheapest decarbonized production route is natural gas DRI-EAF with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). For a renewable electricity grid (50% solar photovoltaic and 50% wind), the lowest GWP was found to be 100% recycled scrap melting of steel and secondary aluminum. This is followed by the hydrogen-based DRI-EAF route and natural gas DRI-EAF with carbon capture. The results indicate that, when applying technologies available today, decarbonized steel will remain competitive, at least in the context of automotive sheet selection compared to aluminum and composites.

The vaporization of vanadium pentoxide from CaO-SiO₂-VO _x ternary slags using different gas treatment regimens and parallel vacuum gas extirpation to treat V-bearing slags at 1873 K has been developed in the present study. The novelty of the present study is to monitor the effect of parallel alumina dissolution on the vaporization phenomenon. Vanadium pentoxide has high vapor pressure at the temperatures over 1500 K. When CaO-SiO₂-VO _x ternary slags, kept in dense alumina crucibles, are injected with oxygen, V₂O₅ gas bubbles are formed which are forced out by using vacuum extirpation. The vanadium pentoxide could be then collected in the exhaust gases. The mechanism of the process phenomenon is described as the formation of V₂O₅ gas phase resulting from the oxidation of the lower-valent oxides present in the slag. This gas phase would form microbubbles in the molten slag bulk phase due to low surface tension between the gas phase and the slag, thereby increasing the contact surface. At the same time, the crucible material would dissolve in the slag causing an increase in the slag viscosity. Due to the high slag viscosity of the bulk slag, these microbubbles formed would have difficulty in coalescing and reaching the slag surface. The escaping of the bubbles into the gas phase is enabled by the vacuum extirpation.

During the steelmaking process, a great amount of slag is generated as a by-product. Vanadium-bearing steelmaking slags are classified as hazardous and require special handling and storage due to the toxicity of vanadium pentoxides. At the same time, such slags are valuable sources for the recovery of vanadium. The present work reviews the investigations on vanadium recovery from CaO-SiO₂-FeO-V₂O₅ thin film slags under the neutral and oxidizing conditions in the temperature range 1653 K to 1693 K (1380 °C to 1420 °C) using Single Hot Thermocouple Technique (SHTT). The slag samples were analyzed by SEM/EDX. The results indicated that vanadium pentoxide evaporation can be up to 17.73% under an oxidizing atmosphere, while spinel formation under an argon atmosphere was detected in the conditions of thin film slags.