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Short answers on cost, emissions and carbon rules in a steel mill. To see them worked out with your own plant data, book a demo.
Carbonova connects blast furnace, steel shop, rolling mill and energy data to CarbonOS, a platform of AI agents that calculates emissions per tonne of iron and steel, flags drift in coal, gas and electricity use, and compares scrap, process-gas and route scenarios by their effect on cost and CO₂. Carbonova Build, in early access, adds process simulation and advanced process control.
On the integrated route, most emissions come from the blast furnace, where coke and coal reduce iron ore and release CO₂; sinter plants, coke ovens and reheating furnaces add the rest. That is why the route matters so much: in 2024 the world average was 2.34 tCO₂ per tonne of steel for the blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace route, against 0.69 tCO₂ for scrap-based electric arc furnaces (worldsteel, 2025).
Steelworks are in the EU Emissions Trading System, and free allocation for steel is being phased out: under current law it falls by 2.5% in 2026 and again in 2027, on a path to zero by 2034, while a July 2026 Commission proposal would slow that phase-out. Imported iron and steel have carried a CBAM obligation since 1 January 2026, and an extension to downstream steel products is still being negotiated.
Each tonne avoided saves one EU ETS allowance, and auction prices averaged €82.32 per tonne in the third quarter of 2026. As free allocation shrinks, a larger share of every tonne is paid in cash, so scrap use, process-gas recovery and energy efficiency pay back faster each year. Carbonova’s planning agent ranks those measures by cost per tonne avoided, using the plant’s real data.
The planning agent uses the mill’s real data to simulate and rank, by cost per tonne of CO₂ avoided, measures such as a higher scrap share, better use of blast furnace, coke oven and converter gases, heat recovery and fuel switching. In Germany, integrated steelworks cover most of their own electricity by burning process gases (UBA, 2019), and Carbonova Build adds pinch analysis of heat exchange.
CarbonOS calculates product-level footprints from production, energy and raw-material data, with lineage back to the source, versioned emission factors and a change history, in line with the ISO 14064-3 verification standard. The same dataset supplies the emissions data EU importers need for CBAM, ISSB-aligned disclosures and carbon footprint requests from carmakers and other customers.
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