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Comment by ItsDeathball | Hacker News Reader

One of the mentioned cancelled projects was a coke plant with a small electricity co-generation component. Do steel mills still need coke? If so, the decline of coal in America could be due as much to the decline of American steel processing as to emission regulations on power plants.

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Only ~15% of coal production, historically and presently, is coking coal. The declines in American coal production/use over the past decade are dominated by declines in thermal coal used as fuel.

Yes, they still need coke, but much if not all of that demand can be met by oil refineries. Even if the steel industry got all its coke from coal that would be a pretty small percentage of the coal market.

A better question might be whether US steel plants have an increasing need for coke beyond current production levels. Also, do current coal-fired power plants also produce adequate coke for future increases in demand?

If coke became particularly more expensive (unlikely despite falling demand for electricity) then US steel (such as it is) would move to direct-reduced iron[1] using natural gas. Almost all steel in India is made this way.

It's also worth mentioning that steel can theoretically be produced electrolytically[2] (like aluminum). It's... essentially vaporware, but who knows. It's one of the Big Dreams: more energy efficient and pure oxygen as a byproduct.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_reduced_iron

[2]: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cleaner-cheaper-w...

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