LKAB is conducting a series of measures to reduce our climate impact to a minimum, and we are constantly investigating new alternatives for the future.
As an internal goal, LKAB has promised that, by 2021, it will reduce emissions per tonne of finished product by 12 percent compared to the 2015 level. Our goal includes reducing emissions of greenhouse gases that arise as a direct result of our own operations. This applies for example to emissions from our pelletising plants, internal transport and, indirectly, from the production of the electricity we use.
Examples of measures to reduce LKAB's climate impact:
- LKAB's production process for pellets requires large amounts of energy. By 2021, LKAB will have replaced a significant proportion of fossil fuels such as oil and coal with biofuel.
- Surplus heat from the production of pellets is used for district heating in Kiruna. As a result, the town has been able to reduce its need to use fossil fuels for heating. As Kiruna town centre is going to be relocated, LKAB is working to ensure that the town will continue to be connected to surplus heat from the production processes.
- LKAB is a partner in the wind power company VindIn AB, which is a way of securing long-term access to electricity from renewable sources. To date, LKAB has invested, through VindIn, in seven wind turbines with a capacity of 16 megawatts. Taken together, these wind turbines are producing a total of 51 GWh of electrical power annually – enough to supply more than 6,000 Swedish homes.
In order to facilitate more extensive reductions in emissions in the future, large-scale research projects have been launched:
- Together with SSAB and Vattenfall, LKAB is investigating the use of hydrogen from renewable surplus energy to manufacture steel from iron ore. This production method discharges water instead of carbon dioxide.
- Along with the European mining and steelmaking industries, LKAB is participating in the ULCOS (Ultra Low CO2 Steelmaking) research project. The goal is to reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent up until 2050. A major part of the research is being carried out at LKAB's experimental blast furnace in Luleå.
LKAB is also striving to minimise our climate impact outside our own facilities, and high environmental performance on the part of our suppliers is important for us.