As countries around the world strive to build and expand cities and infrastructure, mobility and construction are two key industries and central to the discussions when it comes to the green transition. Steel manufacturing produces more CO2 than any other heavy industry, comprising around 8% of total global emissions. How can the sector move away from coal-fired furnaces? How can the mobility of people and goods be maintained and secured without transport placing an excessive burden on people and the environment in the long term?
It is a race against time amid a growing demand to transform industries with high greenhouse gas emission rates and energy consumption into climate-friendly and ultimately net-zero versions of themselves. This fireside chat features two experts who will present challenges as well as innovative solutions to transform and reinvent themselves, such as solar kits to retrofit diesel vehicles and reduce energy consumption and emissions, or the use of hydrogen plasma to turn grey steel into green steel in a carbon neutral production process.
Language: EN
Bios
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Photo: Noel LaasDenis Azhar
GB
Denis Azhar is a dedicated advocate for sustainable transportation and solar technology. As the Managing Director at Sono Motors GmbH, Denis has been instrumental in advancing the use of solar power in vehicles, focusing on projects like the Solar Bus Kit to reduce emissions and energy use. With a background in automitive and a genuine passion for merging solar energy with mobility, Denis is committed to developing innovative solutions that contribute to a cleaner, more sustainable future.
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Photo: Jan HromádkoRachel Donald
GB
Rachel Donald is the creator of Planet: Critical, the podcast and newsletter for a world in crisis with 14,000-plus subscribers from 167 countries. Planet: Critical connects the dots of science, art, language, politics, media, philosophy and power to reveal the big picture. Donald speaks internationally on this ecosystem as an independent researcher and writer. Alongside Planet: Critical, her world exclusive investigations into climate corruption have been published in The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Mongabay, The Intercept, Byline Times and the New Republic.
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Thomas Bürgler
AT
Thomas Buergler is Managing Director of the Competence Center K1-MET for Metallurgical and Environmental Process Development, Senior Expert of voestalpine Steel Divison for climate-neutral steelmaking and Board Member of the Hydrogen Flagship Region Austria.Graduated in Metallurgy at the University in Leoben, his more than 30 years of professional experience as project and research manager includes the development of classic and alternative process routes in steelmaking, direct and smelting reduction.
He has also extensive expertise in the processing of raw materials and recycling of steelmaking by-products.He was member of the Technical and Steering Committee of ULCOS, the European cooperative R&D initiative to enable reduction in CO2 emissions from steel production and involved in the technological development of increased hydrogen use in the DR process, a key technology for sustainable steelmaking.
Latest projects are the hydrogen production with PEM technology, the transformation BF/BOF to DR/SAF/EAF steelmaking and the development of hydrogen based direct and smelting reduction processes for ultrafine iron ores. Sector coupling with CO2 as a source for the carbon cycle will become important for the future.
He is also Lector for Process Technology at the University of Leoben and Materials Science at the Technical College in Linz.
Credits
Presented in the context of the Studiotopia project. Studiotopia is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
