Replacing fossil carbon with lignin in electrodes

The metallurgical industry is a part of the manufacturing sector that focuses on the production, processing and shaping of metals and metallic materials. It is a multifaceted industry that underpins many other sectors such as construction, automotive and electronics, but also medical technology - sectors where both aluminum and steel are important materials. This makes both the aluminum and steel industries important parts of the broader metallurgical sector.

Binds the fibers together

The metallurgical industry currently uses large quantities of fossil-based coal. The largest consumer of petroleum coke, the residual product of crude oil refining that is often used as a fuel and reducing agent in various industrial processes, is the aluminum industry. The second largest user is the steel industry. The metallurgical industry is thus under great pressure to replace fossil-based coals with bio-based coals. One possible source of bio-based carbon is lignin, the binder that holds wood fibers together and gives it strength. The lignin can be extracted from the pulp production at paper and pulp mills through the LignoBoost process. This is a Swedish separation process that allows lignin to be considered as a valuable resource and utilized. The technology to extract lignin was developed in the 1990s by researchers at RISE and Chalmers and is today owned by Valmet.

Possible collaboration

This project brings together two of Sweden's largest industries, the forest and steel industries, for possible collaboration. As a result of this collaboration, new strategies will be developed to replace some fossil carbon with lignin in graphite electrodes. Graphite is used as an important component of electrodes in electric arc furnaces used in steelmaking. In this project, lignin will be used to replace some of the fossil carbon in these electrodes. Different ways of modifying the lignin to better suit the application will be investigated. The results will then be verified in prototype electrodes.