SAIL on Monday said it has signed an agreement with global resources company BHP to work on strategies for low-emission steel manufacturing technologies.

Both companies signed the memorandum of understanding to support decarbonisation in steel making, the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) said in a statement.

“This collaboration is an important step for SAIL and BHP in promoting lower carbon steel making technology for the blast furnace route in India.

“Under this MoU, the parties are already exploring several workstreams supporting the potential decarbonisation at SAIL’s integrated steel plants which operate blast furnaces (BF) with an initial study to assess various strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG),” it said.

These workstreams will consider the role of alternative reductants such as the use of hydrogen and biochar for blast furnaces, to build local research and development capability to support the decarbonisation transition.

SAIL chairman Amarendu Prakash commented, “SAIL is looking forward to this collaboration with BHP in taking a step forward towards engaging in developing sustainable ways to produce steel.

“The emergent need to align the steel sector with climate commitments is non-negotiable.”

BHP’s chief commercial officer Rag Udd said, “We recognise that decarbonising this industry is a challenge that we cannot meet alone, and we must come together to leverage shared expertise and resources, to support the development of technologies and capability that could have the potential to create a real change in carbon emissions both now and in the longer term.”

PTI