Höghållfasta konstruktioner/High strength steel structures
The environmental value of high strength steel structures
Project leader: Jan-Olof Sperle, Sperle Consulting AB
Introduction
The niche oriented strategy have during the last decades taken Swedish Steel industry to a world leading position in advanced high strength steels. To make evident the inherent environmental features of these steels and add it to the product concept would give Swedish Steel industry and their customers an even better position on the market.
Recent innovative applications have demonstrated that there is a large potential for considerable weight savings and decreased environmental impact in using advanced high strength steels in load carrying structures. In order to fully benefit from these steels the structural design and production processes have to be adjusted to the properties of the steel and the technology for doing so need to be more of common knowledge.
It is also important for designers to take a holistic view in optimizing product performance in technical, environmental and economic terms at the same time. Relevant tools for judging what potential there is for reducing the environmental impact, by using advanced high strength steel, need to be developed and validated. The Swedish Steel industry has technical knowledge on how to design and manufacture structures in advanced high strength steel and they would like to integrate the environmental dimension into their design guidelines.
This project is directed to the use of steel in constructions and especially how to value the environmental impact of optimized design solutions in advanced high strength steel. The project task is to collect, choose and evaluate design concepts for structures in high strength steel for lowest possible environmental impact over the life cycle, develop a system for evaluation and to apply this to a number of real life case studies.
Goals
General
Develop and validate methods for life-cycle evaluation of the environmental impact when advanced high strength steel is used for weight optimization.
Industrial
Deliver methods and rules of thumb for evaluation of the environmental product value of advanced high strength steels, methods which can be introduced in design guidelines.
Environmental
Reduce the environmental impact by showing the potential for weight optimization in using advanced high strength steel. A quantitative goal of 20 % weight reduction, for parts where advanced high strength steel is used, is set and the corresponding environmental impact is shown by LCA.
Work plan
The project is divided in four phases.
- Gathering information
- Analysis and system development
- Case study - Validation
- Implementation and communication
Gathering information
Industrial companies are interviewed on what systems and methods they use today for evaluation of environmental impact, how this is included in their design process and how they value weight reduction. Contact is taken with large companies like Volvo Car, Volvo Truck, VCE, Scania, Saab, HIAB and Bombardier which are companies that are likely to have some kind of evaluating system for the environmental impact.
Collect information on critical design issues which need to be handled when designing for weight reduction in advanced high strength steel.
Collect real life cases where the design has been adjusted to meet the properties of the high strength steel. Note achieved increases in performance and figures for weight reduction together with changes in grades and thicknesses.
Perform a survey on methods, evaluating systems and components in the design process which are relevant for the above issues.
Study existing systems for evaluation of the environmental impact in the transport sector.
Analysis and system development
State of the art on the industrial situation are summarized and analyzed as regards the potential of advanced high strength steel to reduce environmental impact.
Summarize, analyze and systemize information on achieved results from "upgrading cases" in terms of weight reduction, increased pay-load, reduced fuel consumption and LCC and put together typical and generic design measures for optimal design in advanced high strength steels.
Perform LCI on the manufacturing of different steel grades and try to find relations between environmental impact, steel type and steel strength.
Perform LCA and LCC analysis for the steel manufacturing, transports and product use based on data from "upgrading cases". If absolute LCA-data is not easily available the analysis is performed as a differential analysis where designs in advanced high strength steel are compared to conventional designs.
Develop methods and practical tools for judging what potential there is for reducing the environmental impact, by using advanced high strength steel.
Apply the above knowledge in design and evaluation of the environmental impact to a couple of case studies. Tentatively the following objects in high strength carbon steel (1-4) and stainless steel (5-6) are considered:
- Recycling container
- Trailer
- Mobile crane
- Tank lorry
- Train body part
- Storage tank
Conventional designs in conventional steels are compared to weight optimized designs in advanced high strength steel. The studied cases could be either existing ones and/or participation in a development project in industry. LCA and LCC-analysis are carried out for each case and the results are aggregated into the developed evaluation system.
Implementation and communication
There is a large gap in knowledge base, concerning optimal design in advanced high strength steels, between steel industry and production industries that already use these steels on one hand and other industries on the other. Closing this gap would be needed to increase the use of advanced high strength steels and therewith achieve a larger total reduction of the environmental impact. Some measures to archive this would be:
- Present results for a design handbook, concerning Eco-efficient steel design.
- Present condensed results of this project for application in industry, at conferences and courses.
- Results to be integrated in the on-going product development with customers performed by the steel industry.
- Test implementations in industry.
- Papers and presentations at international conferences.
- Results to be integrated in academic courses.
Objectives and deliverables 2007-2008
A methodology how to evaluate the environmental impact of optimized design solutions in advanced high strength steel.- Demonstration of the improvement in environmental and economical performance (by weight optimization), by LCA and LCC assessment of steel design product examples.
- Results which form a foundation for the extension of steel design handbooks with the environmental aspect.
Deliverables for 2007
R & D activities | Status |
Survey existing industrial systems for integrating environmental issues in the design process. | Meetings have been held with Bombardier Transportation, Green Cargo, Scania AB, Volvo Car, Volvo AB and the project "Green train ". |
| Study improvements related to the use of AHSS in upgrading cases and summarize design measures for optimal design in AHSS. | A number of upgrading cases have been collected by Outokumpu, SSAB and Sandvik. A brief evaluation of approximately 20 cases has been performed in terms of weight reduction related to increase in yield strength. |
| Perform LCI on different steel grades in order to find relations between environmental impact, steel type and steel strength. | A number of high strength steel grades in carbon steel and stainless steel have been selected. IVL has been appointed for this task. Evaluation of the environmental impact has been performed. A preliminary report has been presented to the project group. |
Study existing systems for environmental evaluation in the transport sector. | The computer program NTMCalc for the calculation of environmental impact from transports have been studied and tested on a timber lorry. |
Deliverables for 2008
R & D activities | Status |
| LCI on the environmental impact in production of high strength steel grades, final report from IVL. | |
| Study improvements related to the use of AHSS in upgrading cases and summarize design measures for optimal design in AHSS. | |
| Perform a relative LCA on upgrading cases to identity potential reductions of environmental impact for different types of structures. | |
| Perform LCA and LCC on two cases studies to validate results from upgrading cases. | |
| Develop methods and practical tools for judging the environmental impact, by using advanced high strength steel. | |
| Final report of the project |
Fragmentering
/Shredding
... är en teknik som används för sönderdelning av skrot innan det smälts om till nytt stål. Genom att utveckla tekniken att finfördela skrotet kan variationerna i dess samman-sättning minskas och dess densitet ökas. Detta innebär att stålindustrin vid omsmältning av skrotet kan reducera både sitt elbehov och sina utsläpp av koldioxid.
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Laseranalys
/Laser analysis
... är en teknik som nu utvecklas för snabb bestämning av skrotets metallinnehåll. Stålindustrin väntas här få tillgång till en teknologi som kan komma att reducera behovet av jungfruliga metaller vid användning av skrot för tillverkning av nytt stål.
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Skrotflödet i samhället
/Recycling of steel
... är trots den höga återvinningsgraden föga dokumenterat. Med bättre kunskaper skapas förutsättningar för ökad återvinning och bättre styrning av skrotsorter för optimerad skrot-användning. Stålindustrin får möjlighet att effektivisera sin energianvänd-ning, stora ekonomiska värden tas till vara och miljöbelastningen minskar.
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Ytrening av skrot
/Surface cleaning of scrap
... är en teknik som skall bredda användningen av färg- och metallbelagt skrot som råvara till ett ökat antal stålsorter. För stålindustrin innebär användning av ytrenat och förvärmt skrot att både energi-användning och koldioxidutsläpp kan reduceras. Dessutom kan den avdrivna zinkbeläggningen komma att återanvändas inom zinkindustrin.
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Vanadinutvinning
/Recovery of Vanadium
Det finns låga halter av vanadin i svensk järnmalm. Genom utveckling av metoder för utvinning av vanadinet får en redan exploaterad naturresurs ett ökat miljövärde.
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Ökat metallutbyte vid smältning av stål/New melting processes EAF
... är teoretiskt möjligt genom metallurgisk manipulering under smältförloppet. Målet är att skapa sådana förhållanden att metaller överförs till stålet i stället för till slaggen. Detta innebär minskat behov av jungfruliga metaller, samtidigt som slaggen kan ges nya användnings-områden.
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Återvinning av slagg
/New slag systems EAF
... är tekniskt möjligt genom utveckling av nya metoder för lakning av olika metaller ur slagger, t.ex vanadin, och behandling av slagger så de kan användas som t.ex isoleringsmaterial eller cementråvara. Vissa slagger kan också användas som ny slaggbildare i stålprocessen, vilket minskar behovet av ny kalk. Återvinning av slagg miinskar både behovet av deponering och förbrukningen av nya naturresurser vid ståltillverkningen.
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Bevarande av alla ämnen i skrotet
/Tolerance of recycled elements
... är en teoretisk studie som skall söka klarlägga hur dessa kan nyttjas för att ge den färdiga stålproduktens önskade egenskaper. Om sådan "självlegering" blir praktisk möjlig kan de metalliska ämnen som finns i skrotet, och som normalt avlägsnas i processen, bevaras i det nya stålet. Detta innebär att förlusten av metaller ur stålets kretslopp kan reduceras.
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Nya höghållfasta stålprodukter
/Optimisation of hot rolling
... är ett forskningsprojekt som skall identifiera de processparametrar som vid värmning och valsning har störst inverkan på materialegenskaperna. De nya rönen kan ge stålindustrin möjligheter att med ökad precision framställa nya avancerade stålsorter och samtidigt minska förbrukningen av fossila bränslen.
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Metoder för lättare stålkonstruktioner
/High strength steel structures
...ska för avancerade höghållfasta stål utmynna i att stålets egenskaper kopplas till produkternas användning och återvinning ur ett livscykelperspektiv. Genom denna metodutveckling kan stål-, bygg- och verkstadsindustrin få nya infallsvinklar på användandet av stål som både kan minska behovet av jungfruliga metaller och reducera emissionerna vid såväl tillverkning som användning av produkterna.
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Miljövärderingsanalyser
/Environmental evaluation
I. Methodology for evaluation of environmental impact
...ska påvisa Stålkretsloppets miljövärde med beaktande av ekologiska, tekniska och sociala faktorer. Miljövärderingar ger forskare, industri, användare och samhället i övrigt möjlighet att värdera såväl stålets nytta för miljön som dess belastning på miljön ur ett livscykelperspektiv. En metod som gör miljövärderingar tillgängliga för objektiva beslut.
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II. Conjoint analysis as a decision tool for evaluation of environmental performance of for instance experts and consumers preferences
... tar fram en metod för att mäta olika experters och andra intressenters attityder till och värdering av komplexa miljöfrågor.
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