The steel manufacturing process is highly energy-intensive and a significant contributor to emissions. The need to address these emissions becomes critical for meeting climate policies, which seek to reduce emissions and ensure sustainability. Recycling steel can significantly reduce energy requirements and emissions compared to producing steel from virgin raw materials. This study focuses on the life cycle assessment of three clean electric power sources-hydropower, nuclear, and biomass-based power sources- that can be used in the production of recycled steel. This study characterizes the environmental impacts of 1 kg of recycled steel produced using each energy source and integrated system keeping the scenario of specifically Idaho State and electric power infrastructure in the Pacific Northwest and Western United States. In this case, potential environmental impacts i.e. global warming potential (GWP), ozone depletion potential (ODP), acidification potential (AP), and eutrophication potential (EP) were evaluated for different electric sources for steel recycling by using the GREET model. From the electricity sources involved, the nuclear source stood with the lowest environmental impacts with GWP, ODP, AP, and EP of 238282 mg CO
2eq, 1075 mg CFC-11
eq for ODP, 645.25 mg SO
2eq for AP, and 12.64 mg N
eq per kilogram of recycled steel respectively. Hydropower was the second most environmentally favorable, followed by biomass-based electricity. Besides, we consider scenarios that integrate the different energy sources: fixed 50% hydropower mixed with varying shares of nuclear and biomass-based energy. High-share nuclear and low-share biomass-based energy demonstrated the lowest GWP, at 243200 mgCO
2eq per kg recycled steel. Results indicate the importance of nuclear in reducing the environmental footprint of the recycled steel production chain, mainly when integrated into a clean energy system.
Keywords: Global warming potential; Integrated Clean Energy; Potential Environmental Impacts; Recycled Steel.
