Research progress on the principle and industrial application of hydrogen metallurgy

3.2 Innovation path of hydrogen metallurgy industrialization

According to the "Global Hydrogen Metallurgy Special Report" issued by the China Hydrogen Energy Alliance, the main manifestations of insufficient hydrogen metallurgy technology research reserves in China are: first, the research and development basis of hydrogen high temperature and high safety materials; Second, hydrogen explosion-proof and leak-proof technology reserve; Third, the structure design and process control technology of hydrogen metallurgy reactor; The fourth is the theoretical study of the reaction mechanism of hydrogen metallurgy and the variation of charge characteristics. The proposed layout direction of hydrogen metallurgy technology research and development: exploring hydrogen rich smelting in blast furnaces to achieve low carbon metallurgy; The waste gas in the metallurgical process is converted into chemical raw materials by adding hydrogen to realize zero-carbon metallurgy; Carbon-free metallurgy is realized by pure hydrogen reduction process.

For China's traditional iron and steel complex, the development of hydrogen metallurgy does not have the regional advantages of natural gas resources, restricted by large-scale storage and transportation facilities, the cost of replacing coal with hydrogen is higher, and the lack of hydrogen metallurgy technical foundation accumulation, so it is necessary to seek new development ideas suitable for the characteristics of enterprises.

(1) China's hydrogen production mainly relies on fossil energy, and hydrogen consumption is mainly reflected in the field of transportation and industrial raw materials. The steel industry itself is accompanied by a large number of hydrogen-rich by-products, but at this stage these hydrogen-rich by-products have not been fully separated, purified and efficiently used. Blast furnace is still the main process of ironmaking, increasing the recycling ratio of hydrogen resources around blast furnace should be the preferred way to improve the process technology at this stage.

(2) The iron and steel industry has three important functions of producing iron and steel products, absorbing and disposing of social waste and realizing energy conversion. The research and development and application of functional technologies for absorbing solid waste and energy conversion should receive attention and attention. Such as: Dr. Niu Qiang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences published a case study on the utilization of hydrogen energy by his team through the Internet media. The high-speed injection of solid waste particles containing hydrogen and oxygen/water vapor into a metal molten pool at 1500℃ can produce a rapid reaction of dissolved oxygen and carbon, and stable generation of clean CO and H2 mixed combustible gas at high temperature, which can be reused. Suitable for waste plastics, old rubber tires, organic solid waste, biomass and other treatment and conversion.

(3) A large amount of coke oven gas, blast furnace gas, converter gas and steam are produced in the traditional coal-iron manufacturing process of enterprises, and gas surplus is a common phenomenon. At present, it is mainly used as fuel for power generation of various boiler systems. Further consideration of converting hydrogen-rich by-products into reducing agents for the whole process of metallurgy or chemical products, to get rid of the situation of relying only on carbon as reducing agents, will strongly promote the application of hydrogen metallurgy technology. At this stage, the most reasonable approach for iron and steel enterprises is to tap the deep potential of the traditional process of hydrogen-rich energy conversion and utilization.