China counts on new technology to decarbonize steel production

A employee rushes to complete orders for particular metal merchandise at a manufacturing facility of China Baowu Metal Group’s specialty metal subsidiary in Maanshan, East China’s Anhui Province on Sunday. The corporate goals to realize breakthroughs in core applied sciences this yr, with its custom-made rail transit elements accounting for over 60 p.c of the home market. Picture: cnsphoto

China has lately accomplished a check of a brand new hydrogen-enriched smelting know-how utilizing a blast furnace with pure hydrogen as blowing fuel supply, in an try to scale back carbon emissions produced from metal manufacturing.

Shanghai College and Changli Xingguo Exact Machine Components Co primarily based in North China’s Hebei Province collectively accomplished the primary growth check of hydrogen-enriched smelting blast furnace with pure hydrogen as blowing fuel supply in China. 

The know-how is able to cut back the coke ratio by greater than 10 p.c, and lower carbon dioxide emissions by greater than 10 p.c, whereas the output of iron elevated by over 13 p.c, in accordance with a report by thepaper.cn.

“The coupling of hydrogen and the standard iron-making course of is without doubt one of the key issues on this check,” in accordance with Zhang Yuwen, a professor from the Faculty of Supplies Science and Engineering of Shanghai College. The redox response between hydrogen and iron ore is endothermic, which is able to trigger the blast furnace temperature to drop. maximize using hydrogen and make sure the furnace temperature stays a technical problem. 

In China, blast furnace iron-making know-how is relatively superior and manufacturing capability is critical, and the gear will nonetheless be the mainstream supporting the nation’s large demand for metal over the following few many years, business watchers have claimed.

As China has promised to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and obtain carbon neutrality by 2060, the metal business stays one of many largest emitters amongst all manufacturing sectors in China.

In 2021, China’s crude metal output stood at 1.03 billion tons, down three p.c from a yr earlier, information from the Nationwide Bureau of Statistics confirmed in January. It was the primary year-on-year decline since 2016.