End for coke blast furnace

State gives green light for green steel production

The classic coke blast furnace at Voest will soon be a thing of the past. In future, steel will be produced using electricity.

(Bild: APA/HANS KLAUS TECHT)

Voestalpine is switching its steel production from coke to electricity. An important step in this direction has been taken: the first electric arc furnace has now been approved in an environmental impact assessment. It is set to replace the traditional blast furnace by 2027 and reduce the massive CO₂ emissions.

For Voestalpine CEO Herbert Eibensteiner, it is "Austria's largest climate protection program": by 2027, the steel group plans to replace one coke blast furnace in Linz and one in Donawitz (Styria) with an electric arc furnace. This will make steel production virtually green. The aim is to reduce CO₂ emissions by around 30 percent by 2029.

EIA process only took five months
An important step in this direction has now been taken: the province of Upper Austria has completed the environmental impact assessment (EIA) and approved the construction of the "clean" electric arc furnace at the Linz site - in just five months, as the responsible provincial councillor Stefan Kaineder (Greens) emphasized to the "Krone" newspaper.

"Extremely complex approval procedure"
The first major EIA procedure to enable more environmentally friendly steel production - the 220 kV supply ring to bring the necessary electricity to the Voest site - was completed the previous year. This took 16 months: "These are both extremely complex approval procedures in which countless experts are involved and which have to be completed in a legally compliant manner and to the highest quality," says Kaineder, praising the employees responsible for the EIA procedures - a side swipe in the direction of Markus Achleitner (ÖVP), the provincial energy councillor.

"Precisely because there is always criticism of long procedures and thus of our employees, the opposite can be impressively proven here.

Umweltlandesrat Stefan Kaineder (Grüne)

He had repeatedly criticized the lengthy EIA procedures. "In the past five years, there have been 17 procedures in Upper Austria. On average, they took 19.3 months. This puts Upper Austria ahead of the national average of 22.6 months," Kaineder's office countered.

Further blast furnace replacement by 2035
For Voestalpine, the switch from coke to electric arc furnaces is only the first stage in the "greentec steel" phased plan. From 2027, 1.6 million tons of CO₂-reduced steel are to be produced in Linz and 850,000 tons in Donawitz. From 2030 to 2035, the further replacement of one blast furnace each in Linz and Donawitz is planned. In total, Voest aims to reduce CO₂ emissions by 50 percent.