An Integrated Analysis on the Synergistic Reduction of Carbon and Pollution Emissions from China’s Iron and Steel Industry

Decarbonization and decontamination of the iron and steel industry(ISI),which contributes up to 15%to anthropogenic CO_(2) emissions(or carbon emissions)and significant proportions of air and water pollutant emissions in China,are challenged by the huge demand for steel.Carbon and pollutants often share common emission sources,indicating that emission reduction could be achieved synergistically.Here,we explored the inherent potential of measures to adjust feedstock composition and technological structure and to control the size of the ISI to achieve carbon emission reduction(CER)and pollution emission reduction(PER).We investigated five typical pollutants in this study,namely,petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants and chemical oxygen demand in wastewater,particulate matter,SO_(2),and NO_(x) in off gases,and examined synergies between CER and PER by employing cross elasticity for the period between 2022 and 2035.The results suggest that a reduction of 8.7%-11.7%in carbon emissions and 20%-31%in pollution emissions(except for particulate matter emissions)could be achieved by 2025 under a high steel scrap ratio(SSR)scenario.Here,the SSR and electric arc furnace(EAF)ratio serve critical roles in enhancing synergies between CER and PER(which vary with the type of pollutant).However,subject to a limited volume of steel scrap,a focused increase in the EAF ratio with neglection of the available supply of steel scrap to EAF facilities would lead to an increase carbon and pollution emissions.Although CER can be achieved through SSR and EAF ratio optimization,only when the crude steel production growth rate remains below 2.2%can these optimization measures maintain the emissions in 2030 at a similar level to that in 2021.Therefore,the synergistic effects between PER and CER should be considered when formulating a development route for the ISI in the future.

Prospects for green steelmaking technology with low carbon emissions in China

The steel industry is a major source of CO_(2) emissions,and thus,the mitigation of carbon emissions is the most pressing challenge in this sector.In this paper,international environmental governance in the steel industry is reviewed,and the current state of development of low-carbon technologies is discussed.Additionally,low-carbon pathways for the steel industry at the current time are proposed,emphasizing prevention and treatment strategies.Furthermore,the prospects of low-carbon technologies are explored from the perspective of transitioning the energy structure to a“carbon-electricity-hydrogen”relationship.Overall,steel enterprises should adopt hydrogen-rich metallurgical technologies that are compatible with current needs and process flows in the short term,based on the carbon substitution with hydrogen(prevention)and the CCU(CO_(2) capture and utilization)concepts(treatment).Additionally,the capture and utilization of CO_(2) for steelmaking,which can assist in achieving short-term emission reduction targets but is not a long-term solution,is discussed.In conclusion,in the long term,the carbon metallurgical process should be gradually supplanted by a hydrogen-electric synergistic approach,thus transforming the energy structure of existing steelmaking processes and attaining near-zero carbon emission steelmaking technology.

Does Environmental Regulation Weaken Industrial Competitiveness?Inspirations from China’s Iron and Steel Sector

China＇s economic growth is heavily influenced by exports, while reconciling environmental regulation and economic growth requires handling the relationship between environmental regulation and industrial competitiveness well. The effects of environmental regulation on industrial competitiveness are largely subject to the institutional design of environmental regulation. Despite numerous studies on the relationship between environmental regulation and industrial competitiveness, a consensus has yet to be reached. Aside from differences in research methodology, these studies failed to give sufficient consideration to the impact of environmental regulation on industrial competitiveness. Such effects can be negative or positive depending on the design of environmental regulatory policy. This paper has investigated the relationship between environmental regulation and the competitiveness of China＇s iron and steel industry and discovered that tighter environmental regulation does not diminish the competitiveness of the iron and steel industry since the policy design of environmental regulation accommodates the tolerance of advanced production capacity and includes a reasonable cost sharing mechanism. This discovery is of important reference for China to develop rational policy design to balance the relationship between environmental regulation and industrial competitiveness.

Eco-transformation of steel industry in China: from the perspective of industrial ecology and circular economy

Recently the behavior of human has resulted in the deterioration of global ecological environment, and global warming and environmental pollution have caused the occurrence of extreme events frequently If we repeat the reckless environmental overkill, civilization will enter a victous circle of decline and lose even the strength and vitality to live in harmony with the environment. At Present, China is in a speciat period of rapid economic develop- ment. Some enterprises focus on short-term profits and don＇t formulate long-term strategies. For example, with the rapid expansion of the steel industry, some serious problems have emerged. Based on principles of industrial ecology and the concept of circular economy, to develop a new development model, taking a new road to industrialization is very necessary. Re-examining the current steel enterprises, this＇ paper proposes the new methods of the integration of material, energy integration, water system integration and sharing of information and facilities. Through ecologi- calization of technology, system, and industrial structure and product structure adjustment, the eco-transformation of the modern steel industry will be gradually achieved in China

New Industrialization Path： The Strategic Choice of Chinese Iron and Steel Industry

The fact-developing iron and steel industry provides the base for China economy to grow continually, stably and healthily for many years. This paper analyzes the situation and the disparity, which the iron and steel industry faces, and attests that the new industrialization path is the strategic choice for the Chinese iron and steel industry to develop continuously, and carries on the thorough discussion to the connotation of this choice.

Mechanical properties and microstructure of Mg-treated and Catreated industrial H13 steel after quenching and tempering

The effect of magnesium treatment and calcium treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of industrial H13 steel after quenching and tempering was investigated.The impact toughness and tensile tests were mainly carried out,and the microstructure was observed by scanning electron microscopy,electron backscattered diffraction,and X-ray diffraction.The results show that magnesium treatment is still feasible in industrial trials.It is mainly manifested in the refinement of lath martensite and carbides.Compared with calcium treatment,the prior austenite grains and carbides size of industrial H13 steel treated with magnesium decreased by 3.17μm after quenching.After quenching and tempering,the carbides(especially V-rich carbides)in Mg treatment obviously spheroidized and distributed uniformly and increased in quantity significantly.The lath martensite size is reduced from 2.45 to 2.31μm.This suggests that magnesium treatment was able to yield smaller grains and more evenly distributed carbides.Moreover,the impact toughness,yield strength,and ultimate tensile strength of industrial H13 steel with magnesium treatment increased by 28%,65.5 MPa and 123.7 MPa,respectively.The increment of strength mainly comes from dislocation strengthening,grain refinement strengthening,and precipitation strengthening,among which precipitation strengthening accounts for the largest proportion.

An Optimized Oxygen System Scheduling With Electricity Cost Consideration in Steel Industry

As an essential energy resource in steel industry, oxygen is widely utilized in many production procedures. With different demands of the oxygen amount, a gap between the generation and consumption always occurs. Therefore, its related optimization and scheduling work along with the electricity cost to fill the gap has a great impact on daily production and efficient energy utilization in steel plant. Considering an oxygen system in a steel plant in China, a nonlinear programming model for oxygen system scheduling is proposed in this study, which concerns not only the practical characteristics of the energy pipeline network, but also the electricity cost acquired by a fitting regression modeling between the load of air separation units U+0028 ASU U+0029 and its corresponding electricity consumption. A set of constraints is formulated for restricting the practical adjusting capacity and filling the imbalance gap of oxygen. To solve the proposed scheduling model with electricity cost consideration, a particle swarm optimization U+0028 PSO U+0029 algorithm is then adopted. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a large number of experiments employing the real data from this plant are carried out, both for the fitting regression and the scheduling optimization phases. And the results demonstrate that such a practice-based solution successfully resolves the oxygen scheduling problem and simultaneously minimizes the electricity cost, which will be beneficial for the enterprise. © 2017 Chinese Association of Automation.

Highlights of Recent Advances in Refractories for Iron and Steel Industry in China

Recently procured outstanding achievements in iron and steel industry in China are presented by data or facts in steel output, energy consumption, technical and economical indicators and advanced technologies that are being adopted. The latest achievements in refractonries for this biggest user industry are reviewed, covering new refractories for CDQ coke oven, BF hearth, AOD Lining, long life tundish, SEN for clean steel making and regenerative reheating furnace . The reciprocal relationship is obvious that the rapid development of iron and steel industry has given an impetus to the advance of refractories industry, which in return has contributed greatly to the former.

Emission Mitigation of CO_2 in Steel Industry: Current Status and Future Scenarios

The sustainable development against global warming is a challenge faced by societies at global level. For steel industry; the pressure of reducing CO2 emission is likely to last many years. During the past decades, the CO2 emission per ton steel has been reduced mainly due to the improvement of energy efficiency. Entering the 21st century, the steel manufacturing route must have three functions, namely, production of high performance steel products, conversion of energy, and treatment of waste. In the near future, it is expected that existing BF-BOF and EAF routes will be improved, in order to produce high performance steels, increase the use of scrap, and integrate steel industry with other industries for mitigating CO2 emission. In the long term, using carbon-free energy, reducing agents, and storing CO2 securely or converting CO2 into a harmless substance can be presumed for tremendous reduction in CO2 emission.

Clean Production of Steel and Refractories in China's Steel Industry

The paper describes the importance of clean production of steel and the relationships amongst sustaining development of steel industry, environment protection and the role of refractories in the clean production of steel. The main achievements and main shortcomings in the clean production of China ' s steel industry have been reviewed together with the introduction of the policy supporting system and the future development of clean production in China ' s steel industry.

Techniques for Treating Sulphuric Acid Pickling Waste Liquid of Steel Industry

Pickling waste liquid of the steel industry is included in National Hazardous Wastes Catalogue because of its high corrosion and large discharge. The techniques for treating pickling waste liquid （ H2SO4 ） in steel industry is summarized. The advantages, disadvantages and applied ranges of all kinds of control technologies are comparatively analysed. The research trends of techniques for treating pickling waste liquid （ H2SO4 ） are the resource reclamation technologies in future which is pointed out in the paper.

Carbon monoxide production using a steel mill gas in a combined chemical looping process

Up to 9% of the global CO_(2) emissions come from the iron and steel industry. Here, a combined chemical looping process to produce CO, a building block for the chemical industry, from the CO_(2) -rich blast furnace gas of a steel mill is proposed. This cyclic process can make use of abundant Fe_(3)O_(4) and CaO as solid oxygen and CO_(2) carriers at atmospheric pressure. A proof of concept was obtained in a laboratory-scale fixed bed reactor with synthetic blast furnace gas and Fe_(3)O_(4) /CaO = 0.6 kg/kg. CO production from the proposed process was investigated at both isothermal conditions(1023 K) and upon imposing a temperature program from 1023 to 1148 K. The experimental results were compared using performance indicators such as CO yield, CO space time yield, carbon recovery of the process, fuel utilisation, and solids’ utilisation.The temperature-programmed CO production resulted in a CO yield of 0.056 ± 0.002 mol per mol of synthetic blast furnace gas at an average CO space time yield of 7.6 mmol kgFe^(-1) s^(-1) over 10 cycles, carbon recovery of 48% ± 1%, fuel utilisation of 23% ± 2%, and an average calcium oxide and iron oxide utilisation of 22% ± 1% and 11% ± 1%. These experimental performance indicators for the temperature-programmed CO production were consistently better than those of the isothermal implementation mode by 20% to 35%. Over 10 consecutive process cycles, no significant losses in CO yield were observed in either implementation mode. Process simulation was carried out for 1 million metric tonnes per year of equivalent CO_(2) emissions from the blast furnace gas of a steel mill to analyse the exergy losses in both modes of operation. Comparison of the exergy efficiency of the temperature-programmed process to the isothermal process showed that the former is more efficient because of the higher CO concentration achievable,despite 20% higher exergy losses caused by heat transfer required to change temperature.

Current Situation and Prospect of High Performance Refractories for Iron and Steel Industry in China

The development,physicochemical properties and application effectiveness of new high performance refractory products used in iron and steel industry in recent years are summarizedThe new products include carbon-containing oxides,non-oxides,functional refractories,low cement and ultra-low cement castables etc.It is pointed out that quality of refractory products needs to be improved and high performance varieties be developed.Meanwhile,research should be done on composite materials and composite structures,equipment techniques and optimization control of refractory production should be strengthened as well.

THE STEEL INDUSTRY IN ARAB COUNTRIES

A brief introduction to Arab countries, in respect of their locations, populations, areas and mineral resources, was given. The development of steel industry in Am6 countries in last two decades was staled as a whole. And the steel industries in Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arch Emirates (UAE), Morocco, Libya, Joanal, Tunisia, Syria, Iraq, Algeria and Bahrain were analyzed separately. Some development problems faced by Arab steel industry, such as steel market, natural resources, manpower and finance, were pointed out.

CDM Project Activities in China's Iron and Steel Industry:Current Status,Barriers and Development Strategies

China is now facing huge pressure from both the domestic concern of energy security and the global community's call for emission reduction commitment.As one of the major energy consumers and greenhouse gas emitters,China's iron and steel industry has a huge clean development mechanism(CDM) potential.This article both quantitatively and qualitatively analyzes the current status of CDM project activities in the iron and steel industry in China,including characteristics of approved project types,applicable methodologies,and potential technology fields.From the perspective of project implementation,the article summarizes development barriers such as high investment risk,difficulty in project identification,strict requirements on PPDs,long registration waiting time,and etc.Policy suggestions are also put forwarded to help better promote the development of CDM projects in the iron and steel industry.

Enhancing mergers and acquisition quality,accelerating technological innovation and achieving the second leap of China's steel industry

Over the past 10 years, China＇s steel industry has made a substantial development in terms of scale, and has finally become a steel giant in the world. In the upcoming 10 years, fundamental changes will be made with the economic growth in China. Against this background, China＇ s steel industry will shift from a rapid development to a slow but sound development. In order to fulfill the second leap of China＇s steel industry, based on its current developing status and characteristics, and from the perspective of both national and corporate development, mergers and acquisition are both effective ways to raise the quality of the existing stock of asset in the steel industry, while technological innovation is the solid foundation for its second leap.

A Glimpse of Iron and Steel Industry of China in Recent Years

The paper briefs the recent development of China＇ s Iron ＆ Steel Industry from the view of a refractorie., worker. Some data and statistics have been revealed in the paper including total output of steel, geological distribution of key steel enterprises, productivity, facilities, technical and economical indices as well as technical advance achieved in. the last ten years. Structural adjustment and consolidation occurred in China＇s Iron ＆ Steel industy has also been described. The views on how much steel is demanded in China in the near future advanced by a steel expert has been accepted as the conclusion of the paper.