The JSW group plans to invest $1 billion to attain net neutrality by 2050.
The company has drawn a two-pronged strategy involving green hydrogen and carbon capture to achieve this goal.
As part of its first phase of the plan, JSW Steel intends to reduce emissions from the current 2.36 tonne of CO2 per tonne of steel produced to 1.95 by 2030. The plan calls for immediate action because the Indian steel industry accounts for about 12% of the nation’s industrial energy consumption and carbon emissions.
The company’s next phase, which is targeted for 2050, is to use green hydrogen and carbon capture, utilization, and storage technologies to achieve net neutrality.
JSW plans to use more efficient raw materials, optimize processes, increase energy efficiency, switch to renewable energy, and investigate alternative fuel options.
While the company has been working on decarbonization for some time, its plan really took off in 2022 when it announced a partnership with SMS Group, a German engineering and technology company, to explore innovative solutions and research and development projects with the objective of lowering carbon emissions from the company’s iron and steelmaking operations in India.
In a press release announcing the partnership, JSW Steel said that it would invest Rs. 10,000 crore to reduce carbon emissions from steel manufacturing and aims to bring down GHG emissions by 42% to <1.95 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of crude steel by 2030.
In yet another initiative, JSW and Smartex inked a memorandum of understanding to advance innovation and turnkey solutions for decarbonization in India’s steel industry.
