Tata Steel’s R&D has expertise on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Environmental Research, Raw Materials research and Product research. LCA will play a crucial role in achieving the identified targets. A roadmap for carrying out LCA had been rolled out in 2015. One of the core objectives of LCA studies is to identify the hotspot areas in the supply chain and this will enable the Corporate Sustainability to set targets, and Research domains to innovate on higher efficiencies and improvements. By this way, natural resources under our value chain will be managed efficiently and sustainably.

ISO 14040, ISO 14044 and WorldSteel Methodology will be followed to carry-out the LCA study. LCA modelling will be done using recognized software in which various scenario analysis can be done for effective results and comparisons. Based on this the intensive areas to be researched upon will be shared with the respective research domain for carrying out research projects. An extensive literature review will be carried out at the initial stage and project development will take its shape accordingly. In case the project has a high potential of becoming an innovation in that respective area, technical paper will be published and patent will be filed after going through the respective process as per our R&D’s IP cell. Based on the feasibility, the project will go through lab scale, bench scale and pilot scale experiments. Upon successful results for commercial operation, the project will be implemented for continuous operation. During the entire course of work respective documents on operational procedure will be prepared before the initiation and will be followed throughout the process.

Knowledge sharing and Capacity building on LCA takes place through our participation in Indian Conference on Life Cycle Management (ILCM), Tata Sustainability Conclave and workshops/Fellowship Programs by World Steel Association (WSA). In 2014, one of our LCA Researchers has been nominated from our company and got sel ected for an LCA Fellow position at WSA. Currently, he is associated with WSA’s LCA project on global steel industry. We also collaborate with Research Institutes, Universities and Companies on individual project basis upon need and requirements. We also conduct technical talks and workshops to bring a common platform for knowledge sharing. These kind of collaborations and participations will continue to be a part of our capacity building and this will bring in new expertise levels on our area of work.

The projects are governed by the respective Raw Material division and are carried out in collaboration with Process Technology Group, Raw Material Technology Group or R&D based on the kind of project.

World Steel Association