British Steel participated in a cross-sector project that examined ways to reduce carbon emissions by improving waste heat recovery from high-temperature furnaces. The study, led by the Materials Processing Institute, brought together companies from the steel and ceramics sectors to identify best practices and efficiency improvements in continuous gas-fired furnace operations.
The project involved collaboration with Wienerberger UK, Heatcatcher Ltd and Low Carbon Europe Ltd and supports objectives under the UK’s National Energy and Climate Plan, including targets to improve industrial energy efficiency by 2030. Furnace systems operating above 1,000 Celsius were assessed to better understand combustion efficiency, heat flows and recovery potential. A British Steel reheating furnace was compared with brick kilns operated by Wienerberger UK.
The analysis identified several opportunities to lower fuel consumption and emissions. These included modifications to burners to allow partial use of hydrogen, improved combustion technologies, recovery of residual exhaust heat to generate electricity using organic Rankine cycle systems, and reuse of cooling system heat to pre-heat combustion air or support on-site power generation. The study also noted that both sectors already recover exhaust heat to pre-heat products, with additional heat reuse applied in brick drying and furnace recuperation.
Findings from the project are being shared across the wider industry to encourage adoption of advanced waste heat recovery technologies, covering more than 40 brick kilns and 20 steel reheating furnaces in the UK. The work received partial funding from Innovate UK under the Transforming Foundation Industries Challenge Fast Start Competition, which supports collaborative research focused on resource and energy efficiency.
British Steel is a UK-based producer of long steel products, headquartered in Scunthorpe. The company operates integrated iron and steelmaking facilities in Scunthorpe, with rolling operations in Teesside and Skinningrove in the UK. Its product range includes structural sections, rail, wire rod, billets and blooms, with crude steel capacity of around 3 mln tons per year.
