浙江之源资产评估有限责任公司
New Progress in China’s Steel Industry: First Trial of Pure Hydrogen Smelting Technology in Blast Furnaces
Release time:
2022-07-16
Source:
Against the backdrop of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality, China’s steel industry faces tremendous pressure to reduce its carbon footprint. Hydrogen-based metallurgy is a clean, revolutionary steelmaking technology that uses hydrogen instead of carbon as both a fuel and a reducing agent in the metallurgical process, with water being the sole reaction product. Compared to conventional carbon-based metallurgy, this approach can fundamentally cut carbon emissions and help achieve the goal of clean production.
The reporter from The Paper learned that recently, Shanghai University—the member of the Global Low-Carbon Metallurgy Innovation Alliance—and Changli Xingguo Precision Components Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Xingguo Company”), a private enterprise located in the Circular Economy Industrial Park in Changli County, Hebei Province, jointly completed China’s first pilot test of high-blast-furnace hydrogen-rich smelting technology using pure hydrogen as the injection gas source.
It is reported that the system operated normally during the trial, and the relevant data met the expected standards. Through this trial, it was possible to reduce the coke ratio by more than 10%, cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 10%, and increase iron production by more than 13%. At the same time, valuable experience was gained in the large-scale, safe use of hydrogen in steel production.
Globally, according to public reports, on November 11, 2019, ThyssenKrupp’s Duisburg No. 9 blast furnace officially launched a pilot test involving the injection of pure hydrogen gas—this marked the world’s first-ever blast-furnace hydrogen injection trial. ThyssenKrupp is using hydrogen gas instead of coal powder as a reducing agent, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions during the steelmaking process.
“The coupling of hydrogen with the traditional ironmaking process is one of the key challenges in this project’s trials,” said Zhang Yuwen, a professor at the School of Materials Science at Shanghai University. He explained that the redox reaction between hydrogen and iron ore is endothermic, which can cause the blast furnace temperature to drop. The technical difficulty lies in how to maximize the use of hydrogen while ensuring that the furnace temperature remains stable. To address this challenge, the technical team employed strategies such as oxygen-enriched hydrogen injection and charge control during the trials, successfully resolving the coordination issue between the hydrogen-rich blast furnace and the conventional ironmaking process.
It’s also worth noting that to conduct semi-industrial or industrial-scale pure-hydrogen metallurgical trials, a large-scale hydrogen supply is essential. However, large-scale hydrogen use poses potential safety risks in production. Zhang Yuwen pointed out that this trial has also overcome the challenges of large-scale hydrogen supply and safe hydrogen utilization.
He stated that in this hydrogen-rich smelting test, the injection rate of pure hydrogen reached 1,800 cubic meters per hour, equivalent to 250 cubic meters per ton of iron. The study systematically examined how changes in hydrogen injection rates affect the blast furnace smelting process.
According to Zhou Guocheng, General Manager of Xingguo Company, as he told the media, the preparatory work for dissecting the pilot blast furnace has now been completed. Once the dissection is finished, experimental data on the changes in the structure and properties of the charge materials inside the furnace will be obtained.
Notably, since the 1990s, under the leadership of Academician Xu Kuangdi, the State Key Laboratory for High-Quality Special Steel Metallurgy and Preparation, jointly established by Shanghai University and provincial/ministerial authorities, has pioneered and continuously pursued research into new low-carbon ironmaking technologies based on hydrogen metallurgy. Through long-term studies on fundamental theories and processes related to key technologies—including hydrogen metallurgy, upgrading and refining hydrogen-rich gas, reducing iron ore, large-scale economical hydrogen production, and CO2 capture, separation, and utilization—this laboratory has accumulated substantial expertise and earned a well-known reputation within the industry. As early as 1999, at the Xiangshan Science Conference in Beijing, Xu Kuangdi first proposed the concept of hydrogen reduction of iron ore, and again presented the technical vision of hydrogen metallurgy at the National Natural Science Foundation Science Conference (Shanghai) in 2002.
According to the official website of Shanghai University, looking at the global development of hydrogen-based ironmaking technologies, there are currently two main technological approaches: one is the blast-furnace injection of hydrogen-rich (or pure hydrogen) gas based on conventional blast-furnace ironmaking, and the other is a hydrogen-rich (or pure hydrogen) gas-based reduction process that does not rely on blast furnaces.
The blast furnace ironmaking process boasts mature technology, large production capacity, and high efficiency. For the coming decades, blast furnaces will remain the dominant ironmaking equipment supporting China’s massive demand for steel materials. Currently, the blast furnace-converter process—based on carbon metallurgy and iron ore—accounts for approximately 90% of total steel production. Among these processes, blast furnace ironmaking is the largest contributor to CO2 emissions, accounting for roughly 70% to 90% of the total CO2 emissions from the entire steel production cycle. This underscores that low-carbon blast furnace smelting represents the primary pathway for scaling up China’s steel industry’s transition toward low-carbon operations.
In October 2020, the State Key Laboratory for Metallurgy and Preparation of High-Quality Special Steel, jointly established by the Shanghai University and provincial/ministerial authorities, specifically set up the “Hydrogen Metallurgy Technology Research and Achievement Transformation Center.” (The Paper)
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