The CO2 emissions at the Imatra mill have halved since 2015
The carbon emissions roadmaps for the Imatra mill have been updated. The update was completed as a thesis project by Jere Oravuo, who works as a customer service engineer at Ovako Imatra. The goal was to review the current state of carbon emissions at the Imatra mill and create an emissions report and roadmap for minimizing carbon emissions.
Two separate roadmaps were created in the thesis. The baseline year for the emissions is 2015 and the previous roadmaps were done in 2019.
The first roadmap covers the so-called core emissions (Scope 1 and 2), which come directly from the mill's processes and from the energy used in production.
The second roadmap also includes indirect emissions (Scope 3 upstream), such as those from the production and transportation of raw materials. Scope 3 emissions are also referred to as the cradle-to-gate carbon footprint.
The roadmaps present the measures already taken and those planned at the Imatra mill to further reduce emissions.
Imatra mill’s core emissions:
- Year 2015: 93 kt CO2
- Year 2024: 42 kt CO2
The core emissions at the Imatra mill have thus been reduced by almost 55 percent compared to 2015. According to the calculations, indirect emissions have decreased by 33 percent over the same period.
“I compared the global level, and based on the data I found, we are genuinely performing well in our emission reductions. This is something we can be proud of at the Imatra mill,” says Oravuo.
A lot has already been done
Among the measures already taken, the most significant are the transition to fossil-free electricity in 2018, which reduced annual CO2 emissions by 43 kt, and the burner modification of the bloom furnace in 2023, which reduced the furnace's natural gas consumption by up to 25 percent, with emissions decreasing in proportion.
"The mechanical vacuum pump system installed in 2019 has also significantly reduced emissions," Oravuo adds.
Among the planned future measures, the most significant would be replacing the natural gas used for heating steel before rolling with hydrogen.
“The goal is to replace fossil fuels when heating steel prior to rolling. This would reduce our natural gas consumption by up to 50 percent,” he explains.
Emission reduction targets for the coming years
Ovako Group has set emission reduction targets for the coming decades, which apply to all the Group's production facilities.
The core emissions reduction target is:
- 80 % by 2030
- 90 % by 2040
The cradle-to-gate emissions reduction target is:
- 60 % by 2030
- 70 % by 2040
Predicted Scope 1 & 2 reductions in the roadmaps for the Imatra mill:
- The 2030 emissions target is 19 kt CO2, while the roadmap predicts 11 kt CO2, representing an 88% reduction from 2015 levels.
- The 2040 emissions target is 9 kt CO2, with the roadmap predicting 3 kt CO2, representing over a 96% reduction from 2015 levels.
“If the planned emission reduction measures are implemented as planned, the core emissions targets for year 2030 and 2040 are achievable. However, achieving the cradle-to-gate emissions targets will be challenging and will require significant emission reductions in the production chains of the raw materials we use,” Oravuo notes.
The data used in the emissions report comes from the Imatra mill’s natural gas reports and carbon balance calculations, which are also reported annually to environmental authorities and the energy agencies overseeing emissions trading.
The entire thesis is available at (only in Finnish): https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi
