ThyssenKrupp-owned Brazilian slab producer Companhia Siderurgica do Atlantico (CSA) expects to invest BRL 10 million ($3 million) in a prototype that is expected to reduce emissions at its power plant in the state of Rio de Janeiro and could then be expanded to the group’s mills.
The project will be developed within a three-year timeframe, and will include lab tests and a pre-industrial prototype of a technology that uses microwaves and ceramic to “break” carbon dioxide molecules, transforming them into oxygen.
Out of the total BRL 10 million investment, CSA will invest BRL 1.6 million through funds from the research and development (R&D) program it has with Brazil’s electric energy agency, Aneel. The remaining BRL 8.4 million will be financed by the technology fund Funtec through Brazil’s development bank, BNDES.
“If approved, the technology could not only service the steel sector, but any industry,” said Werner Riederer, energy efficiency manager at CSA.
Despite CSA’s efforts to reduce emissions, the company does not have an environment license to operate. It has been operating under a TAC agreement, in which the steelmaker is expected to meet a series of obligations.
In August this year, Rio de Janeiro state prosecutors filed a lawsuit in an attempt to halt the company’s operations. At the time, prosecutors demanded new analysis about the impacts of the mill’s activities on the environment.
Additionally, a body of public prosecutors in the state of Rio de Janeiro (MPRJ) was investigating the legality of fiscal benefits granted by both the state and the city of Rio de Janeiro to CSA.
Vale was a former partner at CSA.