The formation of green and low-carbon competitiveness of iron and steel contains trillions of business opportunities. Iron and steel low-carbon technology innovation is a hot land for steel mills, low-carbon technology suppliers and low-carbon technology innovation ecosystem in the coming decades.
Recently, the guiding opinions on promoting the high-quality development of the iron and steel industry (hereinafter referred to as the opinions) jointly issued by the Ministry of industry and information technology, the national development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of ecological environment and other three ministries and commissions put forward that by 2025, the iron and steel industry will basically form a rational layout structure, stable resource supply, advanced technology and equipment, prominent quality brand, high level of intelligence, strong global competitiveness Green, low-carbon and sustainable high-quality development pattern. The steel industry “ensures that the carbon peak will be reached by 2030”.
The 21st Century Business Herald learned from the China Iron and steel industry association that the implementation plan for carbon peak in the iron and steel industry has been prepared by the national development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of industry and information technology and other relevant departments, and will be released in time in 2022. As the world’s largest steel producer, China produced 1.033 billion tons of crude steel in 2021, accounting for more than 50% of the global crude steel output. The carbon dioxide emission of China’s iron and steel industry accounts for about 15% of the country’s total. It is the industry with the largest carbon emission among the 31 categories of manufacturing industry.
China’s iron and steel industry carbon peak implementation plan and carbon neutralization technology roadmap have basically taken shape. What aspects will the iron and steel industry embark on green and low-carbon transformation? What technologies can meet the needs of current transformation? China Baowu proposes to innovate the production mode of blast furnace converter and build a hydrogen rich carbon circulating blast furnace technology system and hydrogen metallurgy technology to reduce carbon. What is the biggest impact on the change in the process of iron and steel production after reconstructing the process flow?
Recently, the 21st Century Business Herald reporter (hereinafter referred to as “21st century”) interviewed Zhang Yongjie, chief researcher of the Central Research Institute of China Baowu iron and Steel Group, with the above questions. Zhang Yongjie said that as the rice of the industry, iron and steel is the engine of the green economy. In realizing the carbon peak and carbon neutralization, in this extensive and profound economic and social systematic change, iron and steel should form its own unique low-carbon competitiveness. This not only requires systematic innovation in iron and steel material technology and manufacturing technology, pays attention to the impact of disruptive, forward-looking and breakthrough technologies on the industry, and promotes the green and low-carbon transformation and development of iron and steel with technological reconstruction. At the same time, it requires the steel plant and iron and steel industry, as well as the operation system of upstream and downstream related industries, to reform, build and continuously improve the low-carbon technology innovation framework, Promote the formation of a green and low-carbon development system for iron and steel.
necessity and approach of green and low carbon transformation of iron and steel
21st century: China’s steel industry carbon peak implementation plan and carbon neutralization technology roadmap have basically taken shape. What are the advantages of the steel industry in promoting the realization of the “double carbon” goal?
Zhang Yongjie: first, the advantages of green properties of steel materials. Steel is a highly recyclable green product and the engine of green economy. Manufacturing steel will produce certain carbon emissions, but the carbon emission reduction benefits of advanced steel materials as the driver of emission reduction are more significant.
According to the research of BCG and vdeh (2013), steels contribution to a low carbon Europe 2050), the carbon dioxide emission reduction promoted by steel is six times more than that in the process of steel production. As one of the basic materials that make the greatest contribution to national economic construction and social development, iron and steel products with higher strength, longer service life and better efficiency will strongly support the society to realize low-carbon transformation through process innovation.
Secondly, the market choice supports its transformation to zero carbon. In the process of green and low-carbon transformation of the whole society, the market demand for iron and steel materials is increasing day by day. This is the result of the market choosing iron and steel, a green and low-carbon material, which is driven by demand. People of insight in the industry believe that steel is the carbon “answer” rather than the carbon “problem”. However, due to the huge global demand for the total amount of steel, the huge energy consumption, resource consumption and emission can not be ignored. The green and low-carbon transformation of steel is the need to break through the hard constraints of environment and resources. From the perspective of inter industry competition and international competition, as well as from the perspective of the whole industrial chain and the whole life cycle, the low-carbon competitiveness of iron and steel is not only the need of industry development, but also the need of China’s iron and steel downstream industry as a large manufacturing country to participate in international competition.
Third, policy oriented guidance and talent driven advantages. Recently, the Ministry of industry and information technology, the national development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of ecological environment issued the guiding opinions on promoting the high-quality development of the iron and steel industry. As the world’s largest steel producer, China’s steel industry is also one of the most market-oriented industries. The industrial volume, technical personnel and technical foundation have sufficient capacity to support its transformation.
21st century: what aspects will the iron and steel industry carry out green and low-carbon transformation, so as to enable the green and low-carbon development of the whole society? What relevant technologies can meet the needs of transformation?
Zhang Yongjie: “double carbon” goals are achieved and low-carbon competitiveness is formed. Technology is very important, and science and technology is the golden key to solving development problems the green and low-carbon development of iron and steel should follow the innovation of energy and raw material structure, design and application of iron and steel materials, process equipment and process, etc
Energy structure innovation refers to the application of zero carbon and low-carbon non fossil energy such as wind and solar hydropower, nuclear energy and biomass energy in iron and steel enterprises. Raw material structure innovation refers to the input and use of low-carbon raw materials, such as scrap steel and low-carbon direct reduced iron (DRI); The design and application innovation of steel materials is to develop green products with high strength, weather resistance, erosion resistance, light weight and long life, improve material efficiency and recycling efficiency, and support downstream users to reduce carbon; Process equipment process innovation focuses more on subversive, forward-looking and breakthrough new technologies to realize process decarbonization, such as hydrogen energy metallurgy, hydrogen rich carbon recycling blast furnace technology, carbon dioxide capture, utilization or storage technology (CCUs), etc.
In addition, we should deepen intelligent manufacturing, apply 5g, big data, industrial Internet, artificial intelligence and other new generation information technologies to all links of enterprise design and R & D, production and manufacturing, marketing and so on, and work together to promote the greening of steel manufacturing and green steel manufacturing through digital empowerment. The iron and steel industry should coordinate low-carbon with multiple industries, such as iron and steel chemical co production and iron and steel construction co production. All these contribute to social transformation and development.
21st century: how can iron and steel cooperate to build a “double carbon” advantage?
Zhang Yongjie: first of all, iron and steel is a technology intensive industry. Iron and steel should lead low-carbon technological innovation and export it to other industries.
Second, highlight the green attribute of steel materials and their by-products. The substitution of steel materials supports the downstream application of carbon reduction, and by-products such as steel slag replace cement production, so as to guide the public and society to change their understanding of steel.
Third, the development of energy is inseparable from steel. The steel industry should pay attention to the research and development of green energy and participate in the infrastructure construction of energy projects and green equipment such as wind power, photovoltaic and hydrogen energy, so as to support the steel industry to obtain sufficient and cheap green energy.
Fourth, participate in government agencies, associations, alliances and other activities, carry out policy suggestions or participate in the formulation, implement standard guidance, and strive for the support of green public funds.
Fifth, create a cross industry and cross industry low-carbon innovation ecosystem, and promote collaborative carbon reduction between steel and upstream and downstream users from the top-level design and overall consideration of national standards. Imagine the change of carbon emission intensity of buildings demolished and rebuilt in 20 years and civil engineering in 100 years. Standard leading and upstream and downstream collaborative carbon reduction are not empty words. China Baowu, together with global steel enterprises and ecosystem partners, has established the “global low-carbon metallurgy innovation alliance” to try to reconstruct green and low-carbon steel and drive the green development of the industry.
technological restructuring to promote low-carbon competitiveness of iron and steel
21st century: before, China Baowu proposed to innovate the production mode of blast furnace converter and build a hydrogen rich carbon circulating blast furnace technology system and hydrogen metallurgy technology to reduce carbon. What is the direction of technological innovation in the process of process flow reconstruction? What is the biggest change in the steel production process after the reconstruction of the process flow?
Zhang Yongjie: at present, the mainstream processes in the world are blast furnace converter (BF-BOF) process and electric furnace (EAF) process. China’s blast furnace converter long process process is dominant. In 2020, China’s output of electric furnace steel accounted for only 10.4%, which is far from the world average of 30%, nearly 70% in the United States and about 50% in other regions outside China.
The development of electric furnace route is a trend. One is to use scrap resources as smelting raw materials, and the other is to use direct reduced iron (DRI) as smelting raw materials. DRI can be obtained by directly reducing iron ore with low-carbon energy such as hydrogen and methane. BF-BOF route low-carbon will also be the focus of innovation. Blast furnace is a highly efficient reactor with energy efficiency of more than 90%.
Hydrogen rich carbon circulating blast furnace, blast furnace gas CCUs and large scrap ratio of converter are the R & D focus of European ulcos project, Japanese course50 project and Korean POSCO. From the perspective of energy efficiency, the carbon emission of these technologies is not necessarily much higher than that of emerging process technologies. Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in the United States believes that this process can reduce the carbon in the blast furnace process by 50%, which may be the highlight of entrepreneurs’ attention to technological innovation and investment in technological innovation. At present, a variety of technological routes compete for excellence.
after the reconstruction of process flow, the iron and steel energy flow and ferrite flow will change, and the corresponding energy network system will face reconstruction for example, the amount of coke oven gas, blast furnace gas and converter gas produced by the traditional process will change greatly, and it may be more economical to use hydrogen and carbon monoxide as reducing agents; On the other hand, with the progress of green power technology, its cost has further decreased. Process reengineering brings about the change of the overall energy consumption mode of the steel plant and the reconstruction of the energy system Baoshan Iron & Steel Co.Ltd(600019) 2020, a project that won the first prize of scientific and technological progress in the metallurgical industry is to try to reconstruct and practice the traditional iron and steel energy with the application of distributed energy and physical information fusion system (CPS) technology. This work will be further deepened and popularized in the context of double carbon.
21st century: what explorations and efforts have Baowu made in the reconstruction of existing technological innovation?
Zhang Yongjie: China Baowu has long paid attention to the reconstruction of iron and steel technology, constantly explored breakthrough low-carbon technologies, contributed to solving common problems in the industry, and played a leading role as a leading enterprise. Baowu group took the lead in putting forward the timetable and roadmap for realizing the “double carbon” goal in the industry, and initiated the establishment of a global low-carbon metallurgy innovation alliance Baowu carbon Zhonghe equity investment fund.
Baowu’s low-carbon metallurgical technology route planning includes: carbon reduction of extreme energy efficiency of iron and steel process, carbon reduction of reconstructed blast furnace process technology, carbon reduction of hydrogen metallurgy technology, carbon reduction of short process near final manufacturing technology, carbon reduction of circular economy, carbon reduction of carbon dioxide resource utilization technology, etc my team mainly focuses on the research and development of steel extreme energy efficiency technology, and published the book “research and development and application of steel low-carbon and high-energy efficiency common problem technology” in Metallurgical Industry Press in 2019, hoping to share the research and development practice of green and low-carbon technology of Baowu group with the industry.
On the one hand, it seeks to make breakthroughs in disruptive technologies. On the other hand, China’s iron and steel industry has a large scale and uneven development. The potential of energy conservation and carbon reduction in the industry of the existing best available technology (BAT) can not be underestimated. Under the background of “double carbon”, secondary development and re innovation based on the existing bat has highlighted its commercial value. The International Energy Agency (IEA) believes that the reconstruction of existing technologies can reduce carbon by 21% by 2050. The improvement of energy efficiency in the whole process is the priority of carbon reduction in the iron and steel industry. It aims at the innovation and application of waste heat and residual energy recycling and improving interface energy efficiency, challenges the ultimate energy efficiency and realizes the full collection of accounts receivable. In 2020, China’s comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel will be 0.545 tons of standard coal / ton of steel. The ultimate energy efficiency is expected to continue to reduce carbon by 3% to 5% at this level.
In addition, material innovation and green energy application are also the focus of Baowu. In terms of materials, green products with high strength, weather resistance, erosion resistance, light weight and long life are the trend of product research and development. In terms of energy, in addition to outsourcing green energy, by 2020, Baoshan Iron & Steel Co.Ltd(600019) the world’s largest roof photovoltaic power generation project of 97mw has been completed, and wind power construction is planned to be carried out in 2022.
There are trillions of business opportunities in green and low-carbon steel
21st century: there are still many difficulties in the process of carbon emission reduction in the iron and steel industry. What technical methods are available to ensure the carbon neutrality of iron and steel on schedule?
Zhang Yongjie: green development is a system engineering. Steel mills attach importance to low-carbon technology in each process, as well as low-carbon technology in inter process and whole process systems. In addition, it is necessary to promote cross professional, cross factory boundary and cross industry reconstruction technology, widely interact with other industries, build a green and low-carbon industry ecological chain, deepen industrial cooperation and promote coordinated development.
To some extent, there are many insurmountable problems in carbon neutralization in a single industry. The current level of understanding is that the technology CCUs (carbon capture, utilization and storage) still needs to be thoroughly understood.
In addition, the steel industry can also exchange resources with the agriculture and forestry industry for win-win cooperation. In 2021, my doctoral team and I participated in the global carbon removal competition organized by xprize with us $100 million invested by musk foundation, and won the highest award of the student group, which is also one of the only two teams in China. Through bioenergy and carbon capture and storage (BECs) technology, the waste heat of iron and steel industry is used to provide all or part of the heat source for the drying, pyrolysis and carbonization of agricultural and forestry waste biomass. The biomass carbon produced by pyrolysis can be used to prepare carbon based compound fertilizer for soil improvement in saline alkali land and desert land, realize soil “carbon sink” and form negative carbon technology.
21st century: what are the difficulties in technological innovation of low-carbon steel industry? How to break through?
Zhang Yongjie: first, the supply of common technologies. Generic technology refers to an in-depth study of concepts, components, processes, or scientific phenomena that may be applied to a wide range of products or processes. The original English text means (commercial) pre competitive technology.
The R & D and application of steel common technology is conducive to the transformation and reconstruction of steel low-carbon technology, but on the one hand, the externality of common technology often leads to the insufficient supply of common technology in the pure market mechanism, resulting in “market failure”; On the other hand, due to the limitation of individual ability, it is difficult to realize the supply of common technology, and cooperation is difficult to realize the commercial value of common technology, resulting in “Organizational Failure”. The double failure causes difficulties in technology R & D and promotion.
This requires the government, industry leading enterprises and their alliances, and industry professional research and development institutes to play a role. On the one hand, promote the innovative R & D, popularization and application of common technologies, and determine the sharing level of common technologies; On the other hand, we will promote the improvement of laws and regulations, create a fair and just competitive environment, and provide some financial support for the development of common technologies.
The second is intellectual property protection. After the R & D of new technologies and common technologies is completed, they will face external infringement use and scale diffusion, resulting in the loss of R & D investment and rights protection, and the constraints of new technology R & D. In addition to the intellectual property protection and application protection of the R & D department, the steel plant as the user should attach great importance to intellectual property protection, and the government should establish, improve and implement the intellectual property protection and punishment mechanism.
Finally, the carbon market and green finance enable the technological innovation and industrialization of iron and steel. The routine operation of carbon market is both a risk and an opportunity for the green and low-carbon development of iron and steel. Iron and steel enterprises need to fully grasp the opportunities of the carbon market and guide the attention of public funds and green funds in combination with their own development trends and characteristics.
As one of the most globally competitive industries, iron and steel will play a mainstay role in the green and low-carbon transformation of the whole Chinese society and the improvement of China’s low-carbon competitiveness as a manufacturing power if it can realize the reconstruction of low-carbon technology, low-carbon technology innovation system and low-carbon operation system in the development of green and low-carbon transformation.
the formation of green and low-carbon competitiveness of iron and steel contains trillions of business opportunities. Iron and steel low-carbon technology innovation is a hot land for steel mills, low-carbon technology suppliers and low-carbon technology innovation ecosystem in the coming decades
