Clean Development Mechanism
ArcelorMittal Tubarão and the reduction of CO2 emissions
ArcelorMittal Tubarão is strategically oriented to reinforce its commitment with the principles of best Sustainability practices as a competitive differential. Allied to this concept, ArcelorMittal Tubarão aims the development of actions which employ clean technologies, aiming the reduction of CO2 emissions, participating in the world effort to minimize the tendency of global warming as a result of the greenhouse effect.
Among the strategies established in the Kyoto Protocol for the world reduction of CO2 emissions, there is the CDM (Clean Development Mechanism), instrument which allows an interaction between the developed countries (referred as Appendix 1) and the developing ones (referred as non Appendix 1) in order to obtain Carbon Credits, generated as the result of the reduction of gases responsible for the greenhouse effect.
ArcelorMittal Tubarão has a number of projects related to CDM, among with are the following:
Optimization and Co-generation of Electric Power Project
Since February 2007, ArcelorMittal Tubarão can already obtain the Certified Emission Reduction (CER), known as carbon credit certificates. This is the first CDM project for the generation of carbon credit in the siderurgy sector integrated worldwide, validated and registered in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The decrease of the internal consumption and the availability of energy surpluses due to this initiative, shall contribute to the non-emission of nearly 430 mil tons of CO2, in ten years, with the reduction of the emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHG). The Steel Plant gases have been reclaimed since September 2004, when they began to be used in the four thermoelectric centrals of ArcelorMittal Tubarão, which have the installed capacity of 286 MW, providing this way, the maintenance of electrical energy self-sufficiency. The environmental and industrial issues are not antagonist. On the contrary: the fact of integrating the environmental management system to the productive one, allows the procurement of one of the world's lowest production costs. Ocean Barge Terminal Project
Another Clean Development Mechanism project from ArcelorMittal Tubarão is the Ocean Barge Terminal (OBT), which has started its operations last September, in Vitória. The OBT is the result of an investment of 15 million reais, and was built for the sea transportation of 1.1 million tons of coiled hot-rolled strips annually for ArcelorMittal Vega, in Santa Catarina.
Four barges are in operation through cabotage system, transporting the equivalent to 110 trucks (a day), loaded for about 1170 kilometers between the cities of Vitória (ES) and São Francisco do Sul (SC). About 250 thousand tons of coils have already been transported to ArcelorMittal Vega, average of 60 thousand tons a month. In 2007, the number must reach 80 thousand tons a month to São Francisco do Sul, where a loading terminal is being structured. For now, the unloading of coil hot-rolled strips is done in the Port of Itajaí and the coils are transported through the 96 km of highway as far as the town.
Heat Recovery Project
The operation of ArcelorMittal Tubarão's Expansion started in 2007, which elevated the steel production capacity from 5 to 7.5 million tons per year, thus increasing its coke demand. In order to fulfill this necessity, Sol Coqueria Tubarão - a company formed by ArcelorMittal Tubarão - 62%, ArcelorMittal Aços Longos - 37% e Sun Coke International - 1% - was created in 2005, which also supplies coke to other Brazilian iron and steel companies.
Sol Coqueria is implementing the CDM project, named "Heat Recovery (HR)", which consists in the co-generation of electric power from the heat recovered in the process of coke production. This technology is not extensively used around the world and it is among the best ones available in terms of environmental control. In addition, it is approved by the Environment and Water Resources State Institute (IEMA) and meets the standards of the Environmental Protection Agency - EPA.
It is estimated that the CDM project will contribute to the reduction of about 3.4 Mt CO2 in ten years. The project also relies on the control of all the environmental impacts, as well as their approval by environmental authorities.
Due to its concern about acting proactively, through solutions related to climate change, the project shows the company's commitment to sustainability, maintaining a balance between its growth and socio-environmental issues.
 | Click here and check out the complete material about the CDM Project- Heat Recovery (HR) |
What is a Coke Plant? What are Carbon credits?
Carbon credits are the reductions of Greenhouse Effect Gases, established based on goals achieved and subject to trade, allowing sales and purchase of quotas.
Such goals have been created in an attempt to solve problems such as the gradual increase of the Earth's temperature and the respective impacts of the increasing emission of Greenhouse Effect Gases (GHG). They are stated in the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty signed by representatives of a number of countries in 1997, in Japan, which was enforced in February 2005, after its ratification by 141 countries.
The treaty establishes goals regarding the reduction on the emission of polluting gases (between 2008 and 2012, reaching emission levels 5.2% lower than those registered in 1990) for those signing the Protocol, listed on Appendix 1 of the Protocol (countries members of the European Union, of Eastern Europe, Canada, Croatia, Greece, Iceland, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Monaco, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States).
Thus, the term Carbon Credit was coined aiming the means used to grant flexibility among countries interested in facilitating the achievement of the reduction goals.
In order to obtain the certificates, the company shall accomplish a number of phases, from the elaboration of a Project Document (PD), passing through "Methodology", "Validation", "Registration", "Monitoring", "Verification" and "Certification" up to the issuing of the Certified Emission Reduction (CER), approved by a commission directed by the United Nations (UN).
In the case of ArcelorMittal Tubarão, the certificates were obtained through projects under the category of Clean Development Mechanism, aimed at the reduction of emissions or at avoiding their future occurrence. The Clean Development Mechanism is an instrument created by the Kyoto Protocol, which allows countries listed in Appendix 1 to invest in other nations with projects regarding the diminution of the greenhouse effect, which is the case of Brazil.
Siderúrgica produtora de placas de aço, aços planos, bobinas e laminados a quente.
