Secondary metallurgy shares many advantages with electric steelmaking. The two areas can operate using green energy, and Deniz Çatan specializes in both.
Why do you want to make green happen—on a personal level?
Deniz Çatan: There are many reasons, but at the core, I simply want to make a contribution to preserving nature using my role in the metals industry. I spend much of my spare time doing outdoor activities such as mountainbiking, hiking, diving, and riding my motorcycle. Had I not become a metallurgist, I would have entered the field of science and gone on to study nature and examine natural phenomena.
How do the technologies you specialize in enable the transition to green steel?
Çatan: Electrification—the field I specialize in—is geared toward replacing processes that rely on fossil fuels. It will forever change our idea of the steel-production process. Electric arc furnaces are also designed to recycle the material that is already there; they take us one step closer to the circular economy. Electrification implies a streamlining of the overall process without CO2-emissions-heavy steps such as sintering or coking. I enjoy the future-oriented nature of electric steelmaking and am currently working on some projects designed to further extend the scope of what EAFs can achieve.
