Development status of hydrogen metallurgy

In June 2020, the GFG Alliance signed a series of agreements with the Romanian government and relevant entities, including the adoption of modern steel production technologies to significantly reduce CO2 emissions. Their plans include building a direct reduced iron plant with an annual capacity of 2.5 million tons. The plant initially used natural gas as a reducing agent, and then with the successful development of hydrogen reduction technology, hydrogen will be used as a reducing agent, and the steelmaking process will shift from converter to electric arc furnace, reducing carbon dioxide emissions per ton of steel by 80%, once the direct reduction iron plant uses hydrogen, its carbon emissions will be almost zero.

In addition to the above studies on hydrogen rich blast furnace and gas-based reduction shaft furnace, Jianlong Group Inner Mongolia Saispu has strengthened the comprehensive utilization of coke oven gas by using a new process of hydrogen based melting reduction, and put into operation a hydrogen based melting reduction project with an annual output of 300,000 tons.

03 Challenges of hydrogen metallurgy

At present, the cooperation between hydrogen energy and the steel industry is a win-win result: hydrogen energy helps steel enterprises to save energy and reduce emissions, extend business, and complete transformation, and steel enterprises provide more landing applications for hydrogen energy and promote its development. The hydrogen and steel industries are a mutually reinforcing industrial mix. However, the concept of hydrogen metallurgy is still in its infancy both in theory and practice, and it is still facing many difficulties. The biggest challenge is still the problem of low-cost hydrogen production, at present, most iron and steel enterprises to use coke oven gas as the goal of hydrogen source smelting projects, related research and development work is on the rise, hydrogen production process and hydrogen metallurgy technology calls for breakthroughs in key technologies, the future of hydrogen metallurgy still need to be explored. At the same time, hydrogen energy policies at the national level are still mainly concentrated in the field of transportation, and the development of hydrogen metallurgy technology also needs a high-altitude top-level design and policy support.