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17 December 2024

Low emissions steelmaking at North Star

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North Star BlueScope Steel (North Star) is a steelmaking mini-mill located in Delta, Ohio, operating three electric arc furnaces (EAFs). Since its establishment in 1996, North Star’s EAF steelmaking has operated at low GHG emission-intensity levels by leveraging abundant local scrap supplemented by access to low or emission-free electricity.

This case study offers a snapshot of North Star’s considerable contribution to reducing BlueScope’s overall steelmaking GHG emissions intensity and footprint—and, as a result, to helping the Company make progress toward its goal to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This goal is highly dependent on five key enablers - technology evolution, raw materials supply, firmed affordable renewables, hydrogen and natural gas availability, and public policy. For more information on our net zero goal and enablers, visit our Steelmaking page.

North Star - focused on steelmaking leadership in the U.S.

North Star is recognised by U.S. customers, industry experts and local communities as one of the country’s most efficient steel mills, making a significant economic contribution to both the region and the U.S. steelmaking sector.

The plant is committed to the highest level of customer service, as evidenced by its consistent #1 ranking in overall customer satisfaction according to the Jacobson North American Steel Industry survey. 

Important to the region

  • North Star is a key part of BlueScope North America, which has a workforce of more than 4,000 people across 31 locations and 16 states supporting supply chains of business units comprising metal recycling, steelmaking, coating and painting, and building and construction.   
  • North Star, which had a third EAF come online in 2022 (a US$735 million investment), supports U.S. domestic steelmaking supply for the country’s automobile, agriculture and construction sectors.
  • In 2021, to secure self-supply of scrap feed to the expanding North Star steel mill, BlueScope made a further investment in the local region of US$325 million to acquire three nearby scrap recycling facilities, which today operate as BlueScope Recycling and Materials. 
  • Producing approximately three million tonnes of steel per annum, North Star represents nearly four per cent of total annual U.S. domestic hot-rolled coil steel production.

North Star's EAF process

EAF steelmaking involves steel scrap and other iron sources being heated and melted in the steelmaking furnace by heat from electric arcs. North Star has three EAFs that melt scrap steel and ore-based metallics - in this case, pig iron and hot briquetted iron (HBI), to produce high quality flat product steel at a very low emissions intensity.  

Scrap, partially supplied by BlueScope’s Recycling & Materials businesses, is a key raw material fed to our Delta Ohio’s North Star EAFs. The scrap consists of steel from households, industry and discarded buildings and infrastructure.

Pig iron also is fed into the electric arc furnaces. Pig iron, sourced from external suppliers, is crude iron that has been already processed from iron ore. Other iron-based inputs include hot briquetted iron (HBI)

The exterior view of North Star's most recently commissioned third EAF.
North Star's EAFs replace the traditional blast furnace combinations used in integrated steel plants.

Inside the EAF, electricity carried through graphite electrodes creates an arc to heat the scrap and pig iron to produce molten steel for further processing, which also enables the removal of impurities.

A ladle empties molten steel from the EAF into the caster.

Slab steel exits the caster for final processing and finishing as steel coil​.

Slab steel, in coils, is housed ready for distribution.

Access to abundant scrap, including scrap sourced from BlueScope Recycling and Materials's steel yards located nearby.

A power purchase agreement with a local nuclear power provider that covers North Star’s entire electricity consumption with 'GHG emissions-free electricity'. More details of the agreement and our reporting of North Star’s Scope 2 emissions (under the GHG Protocol) can be found on page 14 of our Climate Action Report.

Favourable U.S. policy support.

Local factors favour sustainable steelmaking

The viability of EAF technology is influenced by several enablers including: access to adequate quantities of quality steel scrap; the cost, reliability and emissions intensity of local electricity supply; and government policy settings.

BlueScope has developed relationships and invested significantly to establish and keep strengthening the enablers that not only maintain the viability of North Star, but make it one of the most efficient and sustainable steel mills in the U.S. and an ongoing contributor to low emissions steelmaking, thanks to >

Reuse and recycle

A key component to the sustainability credentials of steel is its ability to be reused and recycled.  As well as recycling steel offcuts and other steel waste from the production process itself, the North Star facility gets scrap supply from the BlueScope Recycling and Materials team who, across three locations, process and recycle end-of-life 'obsolete' steel products such as cars, appliances and industrial scrap, ensuring whatever can be captured and reused by BlueScope and other industries does not end up in a landfill. 

This consistent and nearby supply of scrap materials allows for cost-effective recycling and reuse in manufacturing operations, reducing the need for higher emission ore-based iron inputs. It also further enhances operational efficiency, through reduced transportation time and costs for sourcing and managing scrap. This close integration supports a circular economy model, with minimal logistical overhead.

Did you know?

In 2018, BlueScope set a mid-term target to reduce emissions intensity across our steelmaking plants by 12 per cent by 2030. In FY2024, BlueScope reported a 12.0 per cent reduction in aggregated steelmaking emissions intensity against our FY2018 baseline (1.639 down to 1.443 tCO2e per tonne crude steel), which aligns with our 2030 target. This was primarily driven by the ramp-up of a third EAF at North Star, and operating and process efficiencies at PKSW and Glenbrook.  

Looking ahead, the 2025/6 commissioning and ramp up of a new EAF in New Zealand, together with debottlenecking at North Star and general efficiency improvements across all steelmaking sites, will contribute to further lowering steelmaking emissions intensity. For more on North Star's and BlueScope's emissions trends, see our Climate Action Report.

1 FY2024, the GHG emissions calculation approach for steelmaking was updated to align with recently updated National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme (NGERS) and worldsteel requirements for estimating carbon content in ferrous feed. This has resulted in an update to the baseline and each subsequent reporting period. 

2 In FY2024 we made updates to historical data to correct previous overstatements of scope 2 emissions from FY2018, which included a restatement to our FY2018 target base year and 2030 target year emissions intensity. 

North Star’s positive impact on emissions intensity

Since 2013, the North Star site's steelmaking emissions intensity has decreased by 22 per cent, culminating in an FY2024 result for North Star of 0.44 tonnes CO2e per tonne crude steel.

While the expansion through a new EAF has meant increasing production and therefore absolute emissions at the site (see our Climate Action Report for North Star data), the relative emission intensity of North Star’s steelmaking method has considerably reduced BlueScope’s overall group-wide Scope 1 and 2 steelmaking GHG emissions intensity. According to common practice, we characterise steelmaking GHG emissions in accordance with the GHG Protocol: direct emissions from our operations are referred to as Scope 1; and indirect emissions from the energy we buy are referred to as Scope 2.

A production debottlenecking program is now underway to further increase steel production and operational efficiency, which will then help further reduce North Star’s steelmaking GHG emissions intensity.

Other initiatives being explored to further lower North Star's emissions include using electric vehicles on site, CO2 off-gas transfer whereby the captured gas is sent to a local business, identifying the optimal fuel and energy mix in the EAFs, and introducing induction heating in selective locations to reduce natural gas consumption.

Long term pathway to 2050

North Star’s metallics strategy focusing on sources of 'low carbon' iron (iron produced from lower emission intensive ironmaking processes) will be an important driver in its contribution to BlueScope’s 2050 net zero goal. The team is revising the mix of metallics used to reduce the total amount of pig iron, or blast furnace iron, required in steelmaking, and exploring the possibility of using lower emissions iron alternatives. One of the options is to use natural gas or hydrogen-based metallics, for example iron produced through natural gas or hydrogen based direct reduced iron technology, as a low embodied-carbon alternative to pig iron.  

BlueScope has two other steelmaking facilities across the globe - Port Kembla Steelworks in Wollongong, Australia, and New Zealand Steel in Glenbrook, New Zealand. As integrated steel plants which produce iron (the higher emissions part of the steelmaking process) before making steel, both are working to leverage and influence the different enablers and capabilities available to them in their locations to reduce  emissions intensity.