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Steel manufacturing clusters in a hydrogen economy – Simulation of changes in location and vertical integration of steel production in Northwestern Europe

Schneider, Clemens LU (2022) In Journal of Cleaner Production 341.
Abstract

With the move to a hydrogen-based primary steel production envisioned for the near future in Europe, existing regional industrial clusters loose major assets. Such a restructuring of industries may result in a new geographical distribution of the steel industry and also to another quality of vertical integration at sites. Both implications could turn out as drivers or barriers to invest in new technologies and are thus important in respect to vertical integration of sites and to regional policy. This paper describes an approach to model production stock invest for the steel industries in North-Western Europe. Current spatial structures are reproduced with capacity, technical and energy efficiency data on the level of single facilities... (More)

With the move to a hydrogen-based primary steel production envisioned for the near future in Europe, existing regional industrial clusters loose major assets. Such a restructuring of industries may result in a new geographical distribution of the steel industry and also to another quality of vertical integration at sites. Both implications could turn out as drivers or barriers to invest in new technologies and are thus important in respect to vertical integration of sites and to regional policy. This paper describes an approach to model production stock invest for the steel industries in North-Western Europe. Current spatial structures are reproduced with capacity, technical and energy efficiency data on the level of single facilities like blast furnaces. With the model developed both investments in specific technologies and at specific production sites can be modelled. The model is used to simulate different possible future scenarios. The case with a clear move to hydrogen-based production is compared to a reference scenario without technological shift. The scenarios show that existing trends like movement of production to the coast may be accelerated by the new technology but that sites in the hinterland can also adapt to a hydrogen economy. Possible effects of business cycles or a circular economy on regional value chains are explored with a Monte-Carlo analysis.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Carbon neutral steel production, Hydrogen economy, Regional development, Sectoral pathways, Vertical integrated production
in
Journal of Cleaner Production
volume
341
article number
130913
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85124620487
ISSN
0959-6526
DOI
10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130913
project
Interaction between defossilisation of basic industries and relocation - Scenario-based explorative and normative transition pathways to electrification for European basic industries and specific clusters
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1c906bad-4eb2-40d0-9afd-8c0cf1d5657b
date added to LUP
2022-04-12 14:30:19
date last changed
2023-09-28 12:47:18
@article{1c906bad-4eb2-40d0-9afd-8c0cf1d5657b,
  abstract     = {{<p>With the move to a hydrogen-based primary steel production envisioned for the near future in Europe, existing regional industrial clusters loose major assets. Such a restructuring of industries may result in a new geographical distribution of the steel industry and also to another quality of vertical integration at sites. Both implications could turn out as drivers or barriers to invest in new technologies and are thus important in respect to vertical integration of sites and to regional policy. This paper describes an approach to model production stock invest for the steel industries in North-Western Europe. Current spatial structures are reproduced with capacity, technical and energy efficiency data on the level of single facilities like blast furnaces. With the model developed both investments in specific technologies and at specific production sites can be modelled. The model is used to simulate different possible future scenarios. The case with a clear move to hydrogen-based production is compared to a reference scenario without technological shift. The scenarios show that existing trends like movement of production to the coast may be accelerated by the new technology but that sites in the hinterland can also adapt to a hydrogen economy. Possible effects of business cycles or a circular economy on regional value chains are explored with a Monte-Carlo analysis.</p>}},
  author       = {{Schneider, Clemens}},
  issn         = {{0959-6526}},
  keywords     = {{Carbon neutral steel production; Hydrogen economy; Regional development; Sectoral pathways; Vertical integrated production}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Cleaner Production}},
  title        = {{Steel manufacturing clusters in a hydrogen economy – Simulation of changes in location and vertical integration of steel production in Northwestern Europe}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130913}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130913}},
  volume       = {{341}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}