Barr completed greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories to address comments received on the environmental impact statements prepared for the development of new mining facilities, one of which included a steel mill. We calculated the clients’ GHG emissions from estimated future fuel consumption, transportation, haulage, land use impact, the carbon densities of feed and products, and the expected electrical demand.
We also conducted GHG BACT (best available control technology) analyses for a prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) air permit for a pellet-production process to be used at the facilities. The technologies evaluated included fuel blends; improved energy efficiency; and carbon capture, transport, and storage.
To complete our evaluation, we compared the facilities’ high-efficiency processes with the traditional steel-making process to highlight reductions in GHG emissions and wrote summary reports outlining the key differences and advantages of the more-efficient integrated processes. The new mining facilities were designed to achieve reductions by processing ore at the mouths of the mines, using electric arc furnaces rather than traditional stokers, and natural gas instead of coal as a fuel source.