Australia-India Green Steel Push With Agri Waste Trial

• CSIRO and IISc successfully used rice husk pellets to partially replace coal in commercial steelmaking in India
• The process could cut India’s steel sector CO₂ emissions by up to 50%, around 357 million tonnes annually
• RESCONS Solutions and Jindal Steel partnership integrates biomass and green energy, advancing low-emission steel production in India

Australia and India have partnered together to develop green steel production through their first commercial-scale trial which uses agricultural waste as a new steelmaking method.

The CSIRO and Indian Institute of Science researchers created an effective technique to decrease emissions through the use of rice husk pellets which they collected from nearby locations as a coal substitute.

This solution provides an expandable method to eliminate carbon emissions from one of the most rapidly developing industrial nations which produces about 10 percent of worldwide carbon emissions through its steel production.

The Jindal Steel testing operation involved a research team who worked with RESCONS Solutions Pvt., a leading commercial steel innovation company to test 5 percent and 10 percent rice husk pellet mixtures in their commercial gasifiers.

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The gasifiers maintained their ability to produce syngas throughout the testing process without any decline in performance. Professor Govind S. Gupta showed how biomass can assist India in reaching its goal for environmentally sustainable industrial development while Damodar Mittal said that using biomass together with renewable energy sources creates an industry standard for producing steel with low emissions.

India's steel industry generates 2.55 tonnes of CO₂ emissions for every tonne of steel production because its emission level exceeds the global standard which permits 1.8 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of steel.

The CSIRO-led team estimates that wider adoption of this biomass process could cut sector emissions by up to 50%, which represents 357 million tonnes of CO₂ reductions for the annual period. The Indian Ministry of Steel supports the initiative which creates an interactive online map that connects steelmaking facilities to nearby sources of biomass.

The upcoming project stages will evaluate biomass replacement rates while assessing their effects on direct reduction processes which will establish a sustainable method to power India's steel manufacturing operations without using coal.