Taking extreme energy efficiency as the starting point to promote the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction - industry experts offer suggestions from industry experts at the 2024 (15th) Iron and Steel Industry Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Conference

China Metallurgical News, China Iron and Steel News Network

Reporter Lu Lin reports

Reporter Gu Xuechao photography

"Extreme energy efficiency, pollution reduction and carbon reduction are the only way for the high-quality development of the steel industry, and we should take extreme energy efficiency as the starting point, and carry out the 'double carbon' work in tandem to promote energy conservation and carbon reduction of enterprises."

"Environmental protection and energy conservation work are highly homogeneous, and in the final analysis, they are all energy issues."

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On July 20, the 2024 (15th) Iron and Steel Industry Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Conference was held in Beijing. On this important exchange platform with representative and influence in the field of green development in the industry, industry experts have contributed energy conservation and emission reduction strategies from different dimensions, and observed and discussed the green and low-carbon transformation of China's steel from a broader perspective.

"Extreme energy efficiency is the key"

"To achieve the 13.5% reduction target of the 14th Five-Year Plan as scheduled, more pressure will be needed in each of the last two years. In this year's "Government Work Report", the main expected goal of this year's development clearly proposes to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 2.5%. This is the first time in the past three years that the energy intensity reduction target has been announced in the government work report. The energy consumption of the main production process of the iron and steel industry has gradually decreased, and the energy consumption compliance rate of the main production process has gradually increased, but there is a huge gap between the proportion of the benchmark and the national requirements. Gao Xue, deputy chief engineer and director of the Energy Division of the Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute, pointed out that "the improvement of energy efficiency in the whole process is the priority of carbon reduction in the steel industry. ”

Li Ming, chairman of Shougang Jingtang Iron and Steel United Co., Ltd., also made the same judgment. He believes that extreme energy efficiency not only has the characteristics of green and low-carbon, but also has the attribute of reducing costs, which is the most cost-effective and feasible form of direct carbon reduction and cost reduction, and is the key to promoting the "double carbon" work. He also introduced in detail the promotion ideas of Shougang Jingtang's extreme energy efficiency. That is, taking the creation of the benchmark process as the starting point, through management improvement, technological progress, operation optimization, structural adjustment and other measures, the energy consumption of the benchmark process is up to standard; Through interface energy efficiency improvement, energy conversion efficiency, production synergy, and lean management efficiency, the whole process energy efficiency is improved.

Li Huadong, deputy general manager of Xuzhou Jinhong Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd., said that energy structure and extreme energy efficiency are one of the four major challenges in the steel industry, and other challenges include the transformation of dual control of energy consumption to dual control of carbon emissions, market competitiveness and coordinated development of upstream and downstream in the low-carbon supply chain. In this regard, he put forward the following solutions: first, improve the level of energy efficiency, focus on improving energy efficiency, and comprehensively upgrade process technology and equipment; The second is to optimize the energy structure, continue to increase green energy consumption, and increase the allocation rate of photovoltaic and energy storage; The third is to build a green and low-carbon circular industrial chain, including the entire industrial chain of green supply, production, sales and recycling.

"Technological progress is an inexhaustible driving force"

Technological progress is an inexhaustible driving force for the green and low-carbon development of the iron and steel industry, and the core of the ultimate energy efficiency project is also to accelerate the promotion and application of mature technologies and promote the collaborative research and development of common problem technologies.

Sixty-three percent of the world's crude steel production comes from the blast furnace-converter process and 36 percent from the electric arc furnace process. With the depletion of traditional resources such as coal and the support of national policies, the development of low-carbon ironmaking technology has broad prospects. In this regard, Zhang Jianliang, dean of the School of Metallurgy and Ecological Engineering of the University of Science and Technology Beijing, said that the mainland's low-carbon ironmaking is facing challenges, because the spatio-temporal mismatch of energy has increased the complexity of technology and the difficulty of project implementation. Based on the national conditions of the mainland, it is a current phased decision to achieve the technological capability of 30% carbon reduction by 2025 based on the long process of blast furnace and converter. In the next 10~15 years, we will wait for the development and maturity of hydrogen metallurgy technology, and the final decision on the carbon neutrality path of the mainland steel industry will be made in 2035~2040. "The comprehensive development of new low-carbon ironmaking technology will be an important direction for the future development of the mainland's ironmaking industry, and hydrogen-rich carbon cycle blast furnaces, hydrogen-based direct reduction and hydrogen-based melt reduction are all likely to become the main processes of green ironmaking in the future." Zhang Jianliang looked forward.

80% of the steel in mainland China is smelted by converters, and after the outlet gas is about 1500 °C cooled to below 850 °C through the vaporization cooling flue, water spray or water spray mist is usually used to cool down, resulting in the waste of nearly 50% of the gas sensible heat resources. "There is an urgent need to develop low-carbon and green transformative production technologies for converter processes and carry out engineering demonstrations to achieve full recovery of sensible heat resources, reduce coal consumption in steel smelting, and promote the low-carbon development of the metallurgical industry." Li Bo, Chairman of the State Key Laboratory of High Temperature Gas Dynamics of the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Jiangsu Zhongke Hailu Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., emphasized and shared his research progress in the full dry sensible heat recovery technology of converter gas.

Energy saving of compressed air system is one of the important energy-saving directions of iron and steel enterprises. Dr. Ma Jianfeng, vice president of Hangzhou Zheda Technology Co., Ltd., shared the company's practical experience in organically combining a first-class energy-efficient air compressor station, an ultra-efficient oxygen-rich gas station and an ultra-efficient intelligent circulating water system, which was successfully applied to the steel industry to achieve the ultimate energy efficiency of air compressor + oxygen-rich + circulating water.

Blast furnace gas fine desulfurization is a common research technology that has attracted much attention in the industry. Wei Xing, deputy general manager of Nanjing Zezhong Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd., introduced the company's activated carbon essence desulfurization technology. Through source treatment, this technology avoids the addition of multiple sets of flue gas desulfurization systems at each point of blast furnace gas users. After fine desulfurization, the gas temperature is high, and the sulfur content of the exhaust gas after combustion is low, which helps to recover heat and help reduce carbon emissions.

"Synergy in Pollution and Carbon Reduction"

"Some steel enterprises have extensive environmental protection operations, backward digital and intelligent control, large energy-saving space for equipment, waste of low-grade waste heat resources, and lack of systematization and coordination in different processes, environmental protection and energy-saving transformation." Feng Chao, deputy general manager of Shandong Guoshun Construction Group Co., Ltd., talked about the problems encountered in the work, and said: "The synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction has become the general starting point for promoting the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, and the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction has put forward new requirements for the high-quality development of the steel industry. ”

Zhongtian Steel provides an example to learn from. Fang Shenzhou, general manager of the energy company of Zhongtian Iron and Steel Group (Nantong) Co., Ltd., said that the Nantong base is a high-end green intelligent factory built by Zhongtian Iron and Steel, through distributed photovoltaic power generation, three zeros (zero gas discharge, zero wastewater discharge, zero solid waste factory), comprehensive utilization of industrial waste heat and pressure residual energy, as well as the application of smart energy collaborative management and control system and enterprise microgrid, a complete set of factory smart energy solutions have been formed, green and low-carbon development has been realized, and the economic and environmental benefits are first-class.

The Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute has also carried out a lot of work in promoting the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction of industry enterprises, including assisting the industry to complete the cultivation of "dual carbon best practice energy efficiency benchmarking demonstration plant" and the compilation of China's low-carbon steel standards, etc., while achieving a balance between ecology and economy, helping the green development of the industry to a new level. Gao Xue also put forward the following suggestions for the development of energy conservation and carbon reduction in iron and steel enterprises: the overall implementation is divided into two stages, the first stage is the work that needs to be carried out urgently, that is, the ultimate energy efficiency work, to achieve energy saving, cost reduction and survival; The second stage is to combine the current and medium and long-term to plan to cope with the dual carbon work, implement a low-carbon leading operation model, actively respond to the carbon market, and form an efficient carbon asset management model.