The major share of energy consumption during steel manufacturing is spent on iron making. The unavailability of the required quantity of recyclable steel in India has made the industries depend on sponge iron (SI) for steel manufacturing. However, 78.5% of the SI manufactured in India uses coal as an energy source. Thus, increasing the carbon footprint of steel manufactured in India by 18% compared to the global level. Hence, in this study, the potential of palm kernel shell charcoal (PKSC) to decarbonize the rotary kiln-based SI production process was analysed by framing three scenarios and comparing them with the business-as-usual (BAU). Meanwhile, the life cycle assessment of the SI production through different scenarios was done to identify the sustainability of the process. A cradle-to-gate approach was adopted, and it was found that during BAU, the net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were 2525 CO2eq./t SI. However, usage of PKSC (scenario 3) in the SI production process aided in achieving negative net GHG emissions of −41 kg CO2eq./t SI. Meanwhile, the net GHG emission was 1092 kg CO2eq./t SI and 1197 kg CO2eq./t when the coal used in the feed and injection end was replaced with PKSC in scenario 1 and scenario 2, respectively. Thus, the usage of the PKSC instead of coal can abet in decarbonizing the sponge iron industry thereby aiding in reducing the GHG emitted during the production of 1 t of steel in India to 2.4 t by 2030–31. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd
