The steel industry is promoting green and low-carbon transformation



Remarkable results have been achieved in the transformation of ultra-low emissions

China is the world's largest steel producer and consumer, and the steel industry has a heavy responsibility to promote green and low-carbon development.

From the perspective of the emission status of atmospheric pollutants, in 2020, the emissions of nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and sulfur dioxide in China's ferrous metal smelting and rolling industry will account for 22.3%, 12.1% and 16.4% of the national industrial sources, respectively.

From the perspective of carbon emission status, China's steel industry carbon emissions accounted for about 15% of the national total, is the largest carbon emission industry in 31 categories of manufacturing.

From the current situation of energy consumption, the energy efficiency level of China's steel industry has continued to improve in recent years, the comprehensive energy consumption of tons of steel has declined year by year, the energy consumption of the main production process has gradually decreased, and the energy conservation and carbon reduction are being comprehensively promoted.

Recently, the 2023 (14th) Steel Industry Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Forum with the theme of "extreme energy efficiency, pollution reduction and carbon reduction" was held in Beijing. "The task of the steel industry is transformation and upgrading, green and low-carbon is the direction of transformation, but green and low-carbon is not an important work in the industry, but a system engineering covering the whole field and throughout the whole process." He Wenbo stressed.

At present, the three major transformation projects of capacity replacement, ultra-low emission transformation and extreme energy efficiency that are being implemented in the steel industry all reflect the green and low-carbon theme. Capacity replacement is to optimize the spatial layout and process layout of the entire steel industry, and the process itself is to achieve high-end, intelligent and green steel industry. Ultra-low emissions and extreme energy efficiency are themselves the goal of green and low-carbon.

The air pollutant discharge of iron and steel industry has the characteristics of long production process, numerous discharge nodes, large differences in discharge conditions, and many types of pollution factors. China's steel industry has achieved remarkable results in atmospheric governance by promoting ultra-low emission transformation, implementing differentiated environmental control and fine environmental management.

As of June 30, 2023, more than 270 enterprises in China have completed or are implementing ultra-low emission transformation of about 760 million tons of crude steel production capacity; 62 iron and steel enterprises with 314 million tons of crude steel production capacity completed the entire process of ultra-low emission transformation and publicity; 25 completed some ultra-low emission transformation and publicity. The emission intensity of air pollutants from China's key iron and steel enterprises is basically lower than that of international advanced iron and steel enterprises.

"Air pollution control has provided an effective boost for the steel industry to improve quality and efficiency." Liu Bingjiang, chief engineer of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, spoke with data: compared with steel enterprises that did not achieve ultra-low emissions, the profit margin of steel enterprises that achieved ultra-low emissions was at least 1 percentage point higher.

Summarizing the experience of green and high-quality transformation of the steel industry in the first 10 years, it can be summarized as "supporting the best and eliminating the bad" four words, and this policy will continue. Liu Bingjiang said that the current situation of air pollution is still serious, the risk of disguised new production capacity still exists, structural problems have not been fundamentally solved, and the contradiction between supply and demand balance is prominent, and the differentiation of green development levels between enterprises has intensified. China's steel industry to reduce pollution and carbon, green high-quality transformation task is still difficult. The whole industry should maintain strategic focus, continue to promote the green and high-quality development of the steel industry, and strive to achieve four "strengthening" : strengthen the reform achievements, continue to consolidate the supply-side structural reform achievements; Strengthen the determination of high-quality and ultra-low emission transformation, and promote the synergistic effect of reducing pollution and carbon; Strengthen the standardized operation management of enterprises; We will strengthen demonstration and application of common technologies for reducing pollution and carbon.

Focus on ultimate energy efficiency

Whole-process energy efficiency improvement is the steel industry's current carbon reduction priority. Ding Zhijun, deputy director of the Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology attaches great importance to the energy conservation and green low-carbon transformation of key industries such as steel, always adhere to the priority of energy conservation, energy conservation and efficiency as the most direct, the most economical and the most effective carbon reduction measures, and accelerate the promotion of high-quality development.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments issued the "Several Opinions on strict energy efficiency constraints to Promote energy conservation and carbon Reduction in Key Areas" proposed: By 2025, through the implementation of energy conservation and carbon reduction actions, the proportion of production capacity of key industries such as steel and data centers reaching the benchmark level will exceed 30%, the overall energy efficiency level of the industry will be significantly improved, carbon emission intensity will be significantly reduced, and the capacity for green and low-carbon development will be significantly enhanced.

"At present, the proportion of the main processes in the steel industry to reach the benchmark value of energy efficiency is still a large gap from the policy requirements of more than 30% of the capacity to reach the benchmark level of energy efficiency in 2025." Fan Tiejun, president of the Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute, pointed out that in 2022, due to the decline in steel demand and the overall capacity utilization rate, the comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel increased slightly year-on-year. From the current stage, the total energy consumption of China's steel industry is large, and the energy consumption structure is biased toward coal, and the pressure of energy transformation is greater than that of other industries.

At the end of 2022, the "Energy efficiency Benchmark three-year Action Plan" for the steel industry was officially launched, and the extreme energy efficiency project entered the substantive implementation stage. Cisa's "Double carbon best Practice energy efficiency Benchmarking Demonstration Plant" cultivation work will strive to achieve the level of energy efficiency benchmarking of 0.8 million tons to 100 million tons in 2023, 150 million tons to 200 million tons in 2024, and 200 million tons to 300 million tons in 2025.

Shougang Stock Qian Steel Company, Jingtang Company and other 21 steel enterprises were selected as the first batch of "double carbon best practice energy efficiency benchmark Demonstration Factory" cultivation enterprises. "We take building an extremely energy-efficient operation system as a strategic starting point to promote the goal of 'two-carbon'." Liu Jianhui, general manager of Shougang, said that on June 25 this year, Shougang's ultimate energy efficiency improvement project launch meeting was held, and in cooperation with the Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute, the energy efficiency benchmarking action Plan and the three-year Action Plan for energy efficiency Improvement will be formed around the four directions of structural energy saving, technical energy saving, management energy saving and system energy saving. Strive to build Shougang Co., Ltd. into the first batch of domestic benchmark energy efficiency demonstration enterprises.

Ding Zhijun revealed that the next step, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will continue to implement the "Industrial energy Efficiency improvement Action Plan", in the steel industry energy saving and energy efficiency improvement, focus on three aspects of work: first, the promotion and application of advanced energy saving technology as a starting point, the release of industrial and information field energy saving and carbon reduction technology equipment catalog, promote technology energy saving; The second is to strengthen the energy efficiency standards as the key, continue to carry out the energy efficiency "leader" enterprises and green factories construction, promote the management of energy conservation; The third is to accelerate the construction of industrial green microgrids, improve the level of industrial energy electrification, and promote structural energy conservation.

Actively yet prudently promote "dual carbon"

The steel industry is the key area and the main responsibility to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. Due to the influence of energy resources endowment, China's steel industry has a high carbonization energy structure, and has the characteristics of large output, large number of enterprises, and complex carbon emission mechanism. According to the overall judgment of the industry, China's steel industry to peak carbon neutral has to go through four stages: peak, carbon reduction, decarbonization and neutralization.

Hesteel Group is brave to "ride the tide" and promote the change of energy structure. In May this year, the first phase of the world's first 1.2 million tons of coke oven gas zero reforming "hydrogen metallurgy Demonstration project" achieved stable production in Zhangxuan Technology of HeSteel, and the indicators reached the international advanced level. In this project, zero reforming hydrogen metallurgy technology of high pressure shaft furnace using coke oven gas as reducing gas was first adopted, and the ratio of hydrogen to carbon in the process gas was more than 8∶1. Compared with the same scale of "blast-converter" long process production, carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by 800,000 tons per year, or 70%.

China Iron and Steel Industry Association spoke highly of this: this is a major breakthrough in the core key technology innovation of hydrogen metallurgy, an important milestone in the history of China's steel and even the world's steel history from the traditional "carbon metallurgy" to the new "hydrogen metallurgy" transformation, leading the steel industry into the era of "hydrogen instead of coal" smelting "green steel".

According to Li Yiren, deputy general manager of Hesteel Group, Hesteel Group hydrogen metallurgy will continue to go deep and solid, the second phase of the project by playing the advantages of Zhangjiakou wind power and photovoltaic hydrogen production, will develop 600,000 tons of green hydrogen and hydrogen metallurgy project, to achieve the whole process of low-carbon green steel manufacturing. He Steel Group will build an annual output of 2× 1.3 million tons of hydrogen metallurgy project in Tangshan, by the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan" period will form an annual output of 3.8 million tons of clean steelmaking raw materials of hydrogen metallurgy capacity.

It is worth noting that at present, most iron and steel enterprises in China are still in the initial stage of low-carbon development. Different enterprises have different levels of green and low-carbon development, and their carbon reduction space and carbon emission reduction cost also have large gaps.

Xiong Zhe, director of the Carbon Peak Carbon neutral Policy Division of the Department of Resource Conservation and Environmental Protection of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that achieving the goal of "dual carbon" is a broad and profound systemic change that requires hard efforts from all walks of life and all aspects. It is hoped that the majority of steel enterprises will follow the trend of green and low-carbon development, closely integrate their own development with the national "dual carbon" strategic decision, effectively increase green and low-carbon technology innovation, business model innovation and management innovation, fulfill their social responsibilities, achieve new development in the realization of the "dual carbon" goal, and promote the green, low-carbon and high-quality development of the steel industry to a new level.