EIA projects increased electric arc furnace use

The volatility of energy prices and ongoing technology improvements favor increased use of electric arc furnaces for steelmaking, the Energy Information Administration reports.

The EIA estimates 2010 steel production comprised 8% of all manufacturing-related energy consumption – some 1.16 trillion British thermal units (Btus), Kallanish, sister publication ofKallanish Energy, finds.

Electric arc furnace technology consumes significantly less power input when all sources – metallurgical coal, natural gas, electricity – are taken into account, and grew from 38% of all steel production in 1991, to 61% in 2010.

As of 2014 (the most recent data available), electric arc furnaces produced 63% of the U.S.’s steel, EIA said. As a result, the overall energy intensity of steelmaking has dropped 37%.

In scenarios involving both high and low incentives for reducing total energy use, the EIA projects that the ratio between electric arc furnaces and blast furnaces will continue to tilt toward electric arc furnaces.

“Over the projection period, across all cases, most of the growth in steel output is in EAF [electric arc furnaces],” EIA says. “As a result, crude steel production uses relatively more natural gas over time, and its energy intensity declines.”