CIVS Associate Director Presents Steel Industry Overview at C-STEEL

On February 13, 2024, CIVS Associate Director for Operations Armin Silaen presented “Steel Industry Overview” at Argonne National Labs as part of the Center for Steel Electrification by Electrosynthesis (C-STEEL)’s first Full Program Meeting.

C-STEEL is a multi-institutional effort, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science for $19 million over four years and is led by Argonne National Laboratory, partnering with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Case Western Reserve University, Northern Illinois University, Purdue University Northwest, and the University of Illinois Chicago. The center aims to develop an innovative and low-cost process that would replace blast furnaces in steelmaking and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85%. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

CIVS’s role in this project is to develop and validate a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to provide comprehensive understanding and parametric studies to optimize and intensify the reactor and for future scale-up of the laboratory-scale reactor.

Armin Silaen, CIVS Associate Director for Operations

C-STEEL is a key project of the DOE’s Industrial Heat Energy Earthshot initiative, which aims to cut emissions from the energy-intensive process of industrial heating significantly. Partners in the center include Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Case Western Reserve University, Northern Illinois University, Purdue University Northwest, and the University of Illinois Chicago. The Department launched the Energy Earthshots Initiative to spur decarbonization efforts to help the United States meet President Biden’s ambitious climate and clean energy goals, including a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and a net-zero carbon economy by 2050. C-STEEL also plans to implement outreach initiatives, mentorship programs, and career development opportunities for students and postdocs to excite the next generation of scientists.