Ironmaking & Steelmaking

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Review of green and low-carbon ironmaking

technology

Jun Zhao, Haibin Zuo, Yajie Wang, Jingsong Wang & Qingguo Xue

To cite this article: Jun Zhao, Haibin Zuo, Yajie Wang, Jingsong Wang & Qingguo Xue (2019):
Review of green and low-carbon ironmaking technology, Ironmaking & Steelmaking, DOI:
10.1080/03019233.2019.1639029

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IRONMAKING & STEELMAKING
[Link]

REVIEW

Review of green and low-carbon ironmaking technology

Jun Zhao, Haibin Zuo, Yajie Wang, Jingsong Wang and Qingguo Xue
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The steel industry accounts for 5% of the world’s total energy consumption and contributes 6% of the Received 15 May 2019
world’s anthropogenic CO2 emissions. The control of CO2 emissions has become increasingly stringent Revised 19 June 2019
in various countries. The most advanced CO2 emission reduction technology in the steel industry has Accepted 28 June 2019
reached a bottleneck; therefore, many countries have begun developing breakthrough CO2 emission
KEYWORDS
reduction technologies to cope with the current global climate change. Blast furnace (BF) ironmaking Low-carbon; ironmaking;
is the key production process in steel manufacturing. The development of low-carbon ironmaking green; China’s; steel industry;
technology based on the BF is an effective way to realize green evolvement of iron and steel innotive; bottleneck; process;
industry. The current hot technologies of low-carbon BF ironmaking and innovative low-carbon BF CO2 emission reduction
ironmaking processes of the steel industry in various countries (including Europe, USA, Japan, etc.)
are summarized in this paper; in addition, new ideas for China’s steel industry to reduce CO2
emissions are provided.

Introduction regulations, major technological breakthroughs must be

made in order to realize high efficiency, low consumption,
Since the Copenhagen climate change conference held in
energy saving, emission reduction, environmental protection,
2009, the idea of a low-carbon economy has attracted
circular economy, low carbon metallurgy and green develop-
global attention [1–3]. A low-carbon economy is an economic
ment [18–20]. In this paper, the current hot technologies of
development model based on low energy consumption, low
low-carbon ironmaking and the innovative low-carbon iron-
pollution, and low emissions. Consequently, a low-carbon
making processes of the steel industry in various countries
economy represents a fundamental change in the current
(including Europe, USA, Japan, etc.) are summarized: In
production and consumption of fossil fuel energy, as well as
addition, new ideas for reducing the CO2 emissions of
the inappropriately large amount of CO2 emissions [4–6]. A
China’s steel industry are provided.
promise to control CO2 emissions to peak around 2030 and
reduce them per unit of GDP by 60–65% has been made by
the Chinese government at the Paris Climate Conference in
Hot technologies of low-carbon ironmaking
2015. As a binding indicator, this promise was incorporated
into the long-term plan for national economic and social The twenty-first century has witnessed a fast-development
development [7]. According to the global statistics provided phase of the iron and steel industry in China. For example,
by the International Energy Organization, the iron and steel China’s pig iron production currently accounts for over 60%
industry is one of the major greenhouse gas emissions contri- of the global production; however, both the production cost
butors and is responsible for 4–5% of the total global green- and profit lag behind the global average level. The main
house gas emissions. At the same time, the steel industry in reason for this is that general steel products are mainly pro-
China accounts for approximately 12% of the country’s total duced by Chinese steel enterprises, which does not provide
CO2 emissions [8–10]. Therefore, the steel industry has been the expected economic benefits. Therefore, some iron and
facing increasing pressure to reduce CO2 emissions. The steel enterprises have improved their profits by increasing
reduction of CO2 emissions and the reduction and develop- production and using poor raw materials. Such approaches
ment of a low-carbon economy have become important pre- can lead to production overcapacity, increased pressure on
requisites for the future development of the steel industry environmental resources, and unsustainable economic
[11–13]. growth. In order to solve these problems, some conventional
The blast furnace (BF) is the core unit of iron material flow BFs are under improvement [17].
conversion, energy conversion, and energy flow network in an Conventional BFs mainly realize a reduced energy con-
iron and steel plant. In the iron and steel manufacturing sumption and aid in complying with the clean production
process, the production cost, energy consumption, and CO2 requirements by improving the burden composition of the
emissions involved in ironmaking account for approximately furnace, prolonging the service life of BFs, and learning
75%,70% and 90% of the entire process, repectively [14–17]. advanced operational experience. However, these technol-
It can be observed that the role of BF ironmaking in the ogies and methods have reached a bottleneck; therefore,
iron and steel manufacturing process is critical. To realize innovative low-carbon ironmaking technologies are required
the sustainable development of the BF ironmaking prockess to be applied to realize the sustainable development of
under increasingly stringent global carbon emission China’s steel industry [20].

CONTACT Haibin Zuo zuohaibin@[Link] State Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083,
People’s Republic of China
© 2019 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining
2 J. ZHAO ET AL.

At present, novel low-carbon ironmaking technologies temperature after it was charged into the furnace, thereby
such as new burden of iron–carbon agglomerates (ICA), top lowering the temperature in the thermal reserve zone. In
gas recycling oxygen BF (TGR-OBF) and hydrogen-enriched 2012, the Nippon Steel Oita Plant produced a total of
reduction in BF are being developed in various countries. 21,000 t of RCA and conducted long-term tests in the No. 2
These three low-carbon ironmaking technologies will be BF (5775 m3); the maximal additive amount of RCA was
described in detail in this paper. 54 kg t−1 HM. The results showed that the reduction equili-
brium temperature and carbon consumption were reduced,
and the gas utilization efficiency was improved with the use
New burden of ICA technology
of the RCA with 20% carbon. At the present time, the new
As the global high-quality coke and iron ore resources burden of ICA has become one of the major emission
decrease sharply, the technology of new burden of ICA has reduction methods in Japan’s steel industry. In China, this
been proposed recently. This technology involves a new technology has also attracted significant attention because
low-carbon ironmaking burden prepared from iron ore and of the increased pressure of energy savings and emission
coal, which has a high reactivity under the catalysis of metallic reduction restrictions. The ‘Steel Industry Adjustment and
iron. The preparation process of ICA mainly includes the con- Upgrade Plan (2016–2020)’ has listed the new burden of ICA
ventional chamber-type coke oven method and the briquet- as the frontier energy saving and emission reduction technol-
ting-shake furnace method. The advantages of this method ogy. Northeastern University has studied the preparation of
are as follows: ICA, optimization of metallurgical properties, promotion of
the reduction of iron-bearing feed, and its influence on the
(1) Weak-coking coal and low-quality iron ore are used, droplet properties of the BF burden. A complete preparation
which expands the range of available raw materials and and application of the new burden of ICA was formed using
reduces costs. the shaft furnace method. It was demonstrated that the CO2
(2) The temperature of the thermal reserve zone is decreased emissions were reduced by 25 kg t−1, and the production
owing to high reducibility of ICA in the role of the newly cost was reduced by approximately 12 ¥ t−1. Once this tech-
produced iron catalyst, and the gas permeability and nology is applied to all the BFs in China, the CO2 emissions
droplet performance in the BF are improved, thus result- will be reduced by approximately 17.77 million tons each
ing in an enhancement of the gas utilization rate and year and the total CO2 emissions of the Chinese steel industry
smelting efficiency. will be reduced by 0.195%, the direct economic benefit will
(3) The reduction of iron-containing burden is promoted in reach 7.1 billion ¥ [23–25].
the BF, resulting in the improvement of the shaft
efficiency.
Hydrogen-enriched reduction in BF technology
(4) The metallic iron brought into the BF by the ICA is only
required to be melted in the furnace, thereby reducing The technology of hydrogen-enriched reduction in the BF is
the energy consumption and increasing the output. based on the injection of hydrogen-containing medium into
(5) The coke ratio is decreased owing to the use of ICA, the BF, thus reducing the use of coal/coke and CO2 emissions.
which reduces the CO2 emissions and production costs This technology mainly relies on the following considerations.
[21,22]. First, hydrogen as a reductant of iron oxide has more advan-
tages over CO in terms of thermodynamics and kinetics.
Owing to the above advantages, the new burden of ICA Second, the gas product of hydrogen reduction is water
has become a low-carbon BF ironmaking technology, which vapour rather than CO2; thus, the injection of hydrogen-con-
is currently being researched and developed globally. In taining medium is conducive to reducing the CO2 production
2011, the Nippon Steel Corporation conducted an industrial in the BF. As a result, the hydrogen-rich reduction realized by
coke oven production test with an iron ore fines ratio of injecting a hydrogen-containing medium into the BF has
6.5%, furnace wall temperature of less than 1100°C, and car- become a hot research subject [26–33]. Figure 1 shows the
bonization time of 24 h. Under the condition of dry quench- schematic of hydrogen-enriched reduction, this technology
ing, the drum strength of the ICA was 80.9%, and the coke mainly includes injecting waste plastics [27,29], natural gas
reactivity was 48.8%. However, the coke strength after reac- (NG) [31,33] and coke oven gas (COG) [32] into a BF.
tion was as low as 16.3%; therefore, there was no report in The waste plastics injection technology uses waste plastics
which the ICA produced by the coke oven method was as a fuel in the unique high temperature and high reducibility
used in a BF. JFE Steel produced 2500 t of carbon-iron compo- environment of the BF. It not only fully realizes the recycling of
site burden using the briquetting-shaft furnace method and waste resources and reduces the consumption of coal
conducted an industrial test in the 5153 m3 BF of the Chiba resources, but also offers a high energy utilization efficiency
plant. It was shown that with the addition of 43 kg ICA t−1 and low pollution as compared to the conventional plastic
HM, the fuel ratio was reduced by 13–15 kg t−1 HM, and the waste treatment technology. In the mid-1990s, many iron
operation of the BF was stable. At present, this project is in and steel enterprises in Germany and Japan actively con-
the empirical research stage. A demonstration facility of a ducted research and development of BF injection with
300 t d−1 capacity was built and began production in 2018. waste plastics. In June of 1995, Bremen Iron and Steel Co. suc-
Nippon Steel mixed carbonaceous materials and iron-contain- cessfully developed the mixed plastics injection technology,
ing materials (mainly flue ash and sintered ash) and granu- the injection capacity of which was 70,000 t a−1, and a
lated on pelletizing discs (cement consolidation); after the maximum injection amount was 3500 t month−1. In 1999, a
curing, a highly reactive carbonaceous agglomerate (RCA) 90,000-t a−1 waste plastics injection system was built by
was obtained. Owing to the close contact of the carbon and Khopperhesh Steel Co. In October of 1996, the No. 1 BF
oxide, the RCA began to gassify and was reduced at a lower (4907 m3) of the JFE Keihin Plant was operated by injecting
 IRONMAKING & STEELMAKING 3

Figure 1. Schematic of hydrogen-enriched reduction.

hydrogen- enriched medium. In this plant, the annual disposal (4) It uses a simple injection process and technology and has
of waste plastics was 30,000 t. The BF injection amount was high reliability and technical maturity.
approximately 10 kg t−1 HM, with a maximum reached value (5) As compared to pulverized coal, the COG contains no ash
of 200 kg t−1 HM. JFE installed in Keihin and Fukuyama fac- and does not contribute to the amount of BF slag, which
tories to treat 110,000 t of waste plastics annually [30]. can significantly reduce the pressure loss of the gas flow
However, ensuring the quantity, stability, and economy of caused by the unburnt pulverized coal and, therefore,
waste plastics has become a bottleneck in the practical appli- improve the productivity and intensify the smelting per-
cations of this technology. formance of the BF.
NG injection in a BF is required to be adapted to local con-
ditions. In the 1980s, because of the large-scale exploitation, The COG injection into the BF has a long history, during
effective transportation, and relatively stable price of NG, a which it achieved good results. The COG has been injected
considerable amount of NG was injected into BFs in the into the No. 5 and No. 6 BFs in the Linz plant to replace
United States, the former Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, heavy oil since 2002, and the maximum injection amount
and other countries. From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, used was 50 kg t−1 HM. While keeping the coke ratio of
112 BFs of the 133 BFs in the former Soviet Union were 425 kg t−1 HM unchanged, heavy oil ratio was decreased
injected with NG. In the 1990s, the NG injection of North from 70 kg t−1 HM to 20 kg t−1 HM, and theoretical combustion
American BFs increased dramatically, and the injection temperature (TFT) decreased by 200°C, which had no adverse
amount was generally 40–110 kg t−1 HM, with a maximum effect on smelting index. The COG injection amount of No. 1
of 155 kg t−1 HM. In December of 2004, the injection of BF in Edgar Thomson Plant of American Iron and Steel
natured gas in the JFE Keihin No. 2 BF (5000 m3) was begun, Company accounted for 19% of the hot blast volume, and
and reached 50 kg t−1 HM. The monthly productivity of the the operation of BF was smooth. Two BFs (1598 and
BF in 2006–2008 averaged at 2.56 t (m−3.d−1), which was a 1381 m3) in MON VALLEY Plant of American Iron and Steel
new world record for super-large BFs [31,33]. Company injected COG during 1994–2005, with an injection
COG injection method utilizes the excess COG produced amount of 65 kg t−1 HM, and the annual cost savings exceeded
by the coke ovens, which is purified, pressurized to a pressure 6.1 million dollars. Since May of 2013, Datun Branch of Hai-
higher than the blast pressure, and then injected into the cheng Iron and Steel Company, Haicheng Iron and Steel
tuyere of the BF through various branch pipes using injection Company of China, have been injecting COG into two 580 m3
facilities similar to coal injection. The advantages of COG injec- BFs. After more than one year of exploration, the injection
tion are as follows: amount was maintained at approximately 50 m3 t−1 HM, and
the replacement ratio was between 0.45 and 0.5 [32].
The above test results show that the gas injection into BF is
(1) Providing better reductant, hydrogen, for BF and saving beneficial to accelerating to realize a low carbon and super
coke. high efficiency. But at same time, there are still have some
(2) In contrast to the carbon-based reductants, the reduction defects in gas injection. The hydrogen content of gas injection
product is H2O instead of CO2, which is advantageous for is higher than that of coal injection. The demand of heat in the
reducing CO2 emissions and realizing low-carbon BF. upper of BF increases because of the hydrogen reduction is an
(3) It improves the value of the COG and energy utilization endothermic reaction. If the heat supply is insufficient, it will
efficiency. easily lead to a decrease in reduction efficiency.
4 J. ZHAO ET AL.

Oxygen BF with top gas recycling (1) Efficient and economical CO2 capture and storage
technology.
The concept and earliest process of the OBF were put forward
(2) Carbon deposition and potential safety hazards in the
by Wenzel and Gudenau in 1970 [34–36]. As shown in
process of gas heating.
Figure 2,there are three main advantages of the OBF as com-
(3) Development of new oxygen coal injection structure.
pared to conventional BF:
(4) Efficient combustion of coal powder in raceway.
(5) Higher quality requirement for coke due to the drastic
(1) Reducing the gas flow in the hearth, improving the smelt-
reduction of coke rate.
ing intensity, and increasing the output.
(6) Economic cost of process oxygen production.
(2) Developing indirect reduction, reducing direct reduction
and coke ratio.
(3) Improving the coal injection ratio and reducing the pro- Through the development of present technology, the
duction and emissions of CO2 [38]. latter three problems can be effectively solved. Whereas the
remaining questions are still under study:
However, there are two technical problems in the OBF,
namely, ‘up-cooling’ and ‘down-heating’, which can be (1) Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology [36,40,41]
described as follows: involves CO2 being separated from the top gas for trans-
port through pipelines to underground storage or by
(1) The use of pure oxygen leads to an insufficient heating ships to the seabed for storage. All of which allows the
capacity of furnace charge (‘up-cooling’) due to the achievement of a significant reduction of emissions. As
reduction of bosh gas amount. shown in Figure 4,Japan is developing chemical and phys-
(2) The TFT increases, while the amount of gas and direct ical adsorption methods to remove CO2 from BF gas, as
reduction degree decreases with the use of pure well as new chemical adsorbents to release CO2 at
oxygen, which results to the overheating of the hearth lower temperatures, which can reduce the energy con-
(‘down-heating’). sumption of CO2 separation from 4 to 2 GJ t−1 CO2. A
10 m3 experimental BF is being constructed in Kimitsu
To solve these two technical problems, many experts pro- plant with a 30 t CO2 d−1 chemical absorption device
posed new OBF processes, such as the Fink process, W-K Lu (CAT30). The application of CCS technology needs to
process, and NKK process. Some of them proposed innovative overcome three major shortcomings: high cost of CCS
improvements, in which two rows of tuyeres were provided at technology (10–20 $ t−1 CO2), high energy consumption,
normal position and at lower shaft, respectively. The oxygen and risk of leakage in the process of transportation and
at room temperature is blasted into the hearth along with a storage.
large amount of pulverized coal injection. Meanwhile, a (2) Safety of gas heating [42] concerns the heating of gas
certain amount of top gas after removing CO2 is injected which is realized by a partition wall type heat exchanger,
into the shaft tuyeres, which effectively solves the two pro- two-stage exchanger of regenerative hot stove. The par-
blems [34,36,39]. Therefore, the technology of the top gas tition wall type heat exchanger separates the hot and
recycling (TGR) cannot only effectively solve the problems cold fluids through the solid wall for heat exchange,
of ‘up-cooling’ and ‘down-heating’, but also reduce the fuel which has large heat loss and high requirements on the
ratio of ironmaking and the emissions of CO2. material of the heat exchanger. The two-stage exchanger
Figure 3 shows the material flow in TGR-OBF. Although the mainly increases the gas temperature by the partition wall
TGR-OBF technology can greatly reduce the coke rate and CO2 heat exchange and the gas spontaneous combustion,
emissions, several problems remain to be solved for its further which consumes a large amount of gas and reduces the
industrial application: heating efficiency. The role of a regenerative hot stove

Figure 2. Typical comparison of TGR-OBF with conventional BF [37].

 IRONMAKING & STEELMAKING 5

Figure 3. Material flow in TGR-OBF process [37].

is to supply the high temperature hot blast of more than established in Yingkou by the China Iron and Steel Research
1000 °C for the BF. It is widely used in the BF industry Institute and China Minmetals Corporation. Two rows of
based on its high outlet temperature and high heating tuyeres were respectively installed in normal position and
efficiency. lower shaft, which respectively injected the normal tempera-
(3) Oxygen coal injection needs a structure that should meet ture coal powers and oxygen and the preheated COG. The test
the needs of the BF, including the appropriate size of is now in the third stage, the coke ratio, coal ratio and pro-
tuyere raceway, suitable TFT, and blast kinetic energy. ductivity are 497 kg t−1 HM, 403 kg t−1 HM and 8.1 t (m−3.
d−1), repectively.
Since the late 1980s, Japan, Russia, the EU, and China have
launched experimental studies on small TGR-OBFS. Among
Development of low-carbon ironmaking
them, Japan’s NKK Company conducted a TGR-OBF test for
technology in various countries
the first time. In this test, the coal ratio was increased to
320 kg t−1 HM, the coke ratio was greatly reduced, and the An ironmaking system (including coking, sintering and pellet
productivity reached 5.1 t (m−3. d−1), which proves the feasi- plants) is the main source of CO2 emissions in the iron and
bility of oxygen BF technologies. In 2007, a 7-week pilot steel production process: As a result of the improvements in
study was performed on the test BF of the LKAB in Sweden equipment and process technology, CO2 emissions have
[35,43]. The oxygen BF volume, hearth diameter and tuyere been reduced by approximately 50% as compared with that
diameter were 8.9 m3, 1.4 and 54 mm, respectively. The test in the 1970s [44]. Direct and indirect emissions from these
results showed that in the single row of tuyeres recycling systems constitute more than 90% of the total emissions of
gas injection, the maximum coke ratio, coal injection and the iron and steel industry. At the present time, developed
recycling gas were 360 kg t−1 HM, 140 kg t−1 HM and industrial countries are establishing novel iron and steel pro-
650 m3 t−1 HM, respectively. While in the double rows of cesses with ultra-low CO2 emissions. So pushing this value to
tuyeres recycling gas injection, the coke ratio was reduced lower levels.
from 400–405 kg t−1 HM to 260–265 kg t−1 HM and carbon
consumption was reduced by 24% with a constant coal injec-
tion ratio (170 kg t−1 HM). The top recycling gas rate was Japan: COURSE50 programme
greater than 90%. In June of 2009, an 8 m3 oxygen BF was The COURSE 50 is a national project in Japan that aims at devel-
oping an innovative new ironmaking process. This project con-
siders both environmental protection and economic
development, and its ultimate goal is to reduce CO2 emissions
by 30% in 2030 [45–48]. It was launched by the Japan Iron and
Steel Federation in 2008. Under the support of the Japanese
government, six iron and steel enterprises began to develop
the new technology. The flow chart of the COURSE 50 pro-
gramme is presented in Figure 5. The research content is
mainly divided into two parts. The first part of this programme
is to develop the technology of CO2 emission mitigation
through using hydrogen reduction: The goal of this part is to
achieve a 10% reduction of CO2 emissions. The key technol-
ogies include (1) the technique for iron ore reduction using
hydrogen-enrichment medium, (2) the technology of COG
Figure 4. Flowchart of CCS in Japan [40]. reforming to increase the hydrogen content, and (3) the
6 J. ZHAO ET AL.

Figure 5. Technical route of COURSE50 programme [48].

production technology of high-strength and high-reactivity steel. The specific approach of this technology is to inject
coke. The second part of the programme involves developing NG from the top layer of the sinter cake, such that the
CO2 separation and storage technologies: The technical goal of upper layer of the sinter cake can maintain the highest sin-
this part is to reduce CO2 emissions by 20%. The main devel- tering temperature, thereby improving the energy
oped technologies include the technology for the separation efficiency and reducing the CO2 emissions. Using this tech-
and capture of CO2 from BF gas and separation and capture nology, the CO2 emissions can be reduced by 60,000 t
of CO2 by utilizing waste heat of steel plant. The entire research annually. In 2013, JFE Steel announced that it had success-
and development process is divided into four steps. Table 1 fully completed the Ferro-coke manufacturing and appli-
shows the detail schedule of the first and second steps. The cation test at No. 6 BF (volume 5153 m3) at their Chiba
first step of the basic research was conducted for 2008–2013. Plant. JFE Steel claimed that the test process was stable,
The second step is focused on the industry experiments and and the BF fuel ratio was effectively reduced. It is considered
was conducted for 2013–2017. The third step was planned to be the world’s first Ferro-coke manufacturing process in a
for 2018–2030, with the aim of developing industry appli- vertical dry distillation furnace. In September of 2014, a
cations. Finally, the industrial popularization step will be rea- 10 m3 experimental BF was built in Shigaijinkai, which was
lized in 2030–2050. used to investigate the optimization of hydrogen injection
At the present time, the entire project progress is in and suitable raw materials for hydrogen reduction. In 2016,
accordance with the timetable. In 2009, an auxiliary fuel JFE steel built a pilot test facility for capture of CO2 via
injection technology that can reduce energy consumption, the pressure swing adsorption method with a capacity of
also known as ‘super-sintering,’ was developed by JFE 3 t CO2 h−1 [45].

Table 1. Achievements at step one and research project at step two of COURSE50 project phase I [45].
Target Achievements at step one (2008–2012) Research project at step two (2013–2017)
(1) Hydrogen reduction of iron ore, establishing the Completing the hydrogen reduction in the 10 m3 BF, (1) Further improving efficiency by optimizing gas
basic technology of reaction controlling and the the results showed that the direct reduction injection conditions;(2) Completing the
mechanism of hydrogen reduction degree of carbon is reduced and the CO2 input comprehensive research on the material
from BF is reduced by 2.5–3.5%. conditions of the SCOPE21 process and applying
them in the 10 m3 BF
(2) Establishing the COG upgrading technology with Obtaining a catalyst for increasing the hydrogen Realizing the requirements of the BF temperature
increased hydrogen content content, confirming the activity of the catalyst beyond 800 °C and reducing CH4 content
(3) Manufacturing coke for hydrogen reduction BF, Obtaining the method of coke production with drum Evaluation of prepared coke in the 10 m3 BF
developing the technology for preparation of high strength (DI)>88%
strength coke
(4) CCS technology, developing the separation and Achieving the target that reduces the cost of Accomplishing the application of the chemical
recovery technology of CO2 from BF top gas separation and recovery of CO2 from BF top gas to absorption method in the 10 m3 BF and
2 000 yen t−1 – CO2 developing the high-efficiency utilization
technology of waste heat
(5) Promoting the overall optimization of low- Building an evaluation system for the Establishing a comprehensive technology that
carbon ironmaking technology, establishing the comprehensive energy consumption balance of reduces CO2 emissions by 30%; developing a new
technology system for reducing CO2 emissions by the steel plant; determing the level of energy low-carbon ironmaking technology
30% in iron and steel industry reduction caused by hydrogen reduction and CO2
separation and recovery
 IRONMAKING & STEELMAKING 7

Europe: ultra-low CO2 steelmaking (ULCOS) Table 2. Environment and economic performance of ULCOS compared with the
EU average BF for pig-iron production [44].
programme
EU
In 2004, the European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP) average BF TGR-BF HIsarna ULCORED
Steering Committee, which was established by the steel Production capacity 0.5–5.0
(Mt HM/year)
industry of the European Union, decided to implement
Environmental
ULCOS, an ultra-low CO2 steelmaking technology research performance
and development project. The goal of the project was to Energy consumption 100% 80% 85–95%
CO2 emission (t/t HM)
reduce CO2 emissions per ton iron by 50% as compared to
with CCS 1650 760 330 (80%) 760 (54%)
the most advanced technical index of that time. The project (52%)
is supported by 15 EU countries and 48 EU companies and without CCS 1650 1320 (20%) 1590–1420 (5%)
Economic
related institutions [49–53].
performance
Figure 6 shows the technical route of the ULCOS pro- CAPEX
gramme. The project was implemented in three stages. The Green field 100% 105% 75% 200% (no CCS)
Brown field 25% 65%
first stage is the fundamental research phase, which pro-
OPEX 100% 120% 90% 80–90% (no CCS)
ceeded from 2004 to 2009. During this stage, different pro-
duction routes of iron and steel based on coal, NG,
electricity, and biomass energy were investigated separately In addition, hydrogen and biomass reduction were developed
to determine whether there is a potential for meeting the as support for these technologies [44]. The highlights of the
future CO2 emission reduction requirements of the steel ULCOS programme are summarized in Table 2 and compared
industry. The second stage is the demonstration phase, with the EU average BF production.
which started in 2010. Two industrial trials were performed The proportions should be interpreted as relative scores;
in the existing factories for at least one year to test for the pro- the level of EU average BF is set at 100%; the other data are
blems that may arise in the process, to facilitate possible cor- absolute figures.
rections, and to estimate the investment and operation costs
based on the results of the first stage. The third stage is the
application, which will start in 2025. It is expected to reduce
South Korea: POSCO programme
the consumption of CO2 per ton of steel from two tons to
one ton [50]. The energy reduction and Clean Development Mechanism
At the beginning of the programme, nearly 80 frontier programmes were proposed by POSCO [54–57], one of the
technologies in the world were collected by the ULCOS most competitive and innovative steel companies in the
project team, and the application of models, tests and other world. These programmes, which mainly refer to low-carbon
methods in terms of CO2 emissions, energy consumption, ironmaking technologies, include the following aspects:
steelmaking costs and sustainability were evaluated while
strictly adhering to the principle of reducing CO2 emissions (1) Smelting reduction ironmaking technology – FINEX
by more than 50%. The technical route selection should (Figure 7) [54,55]. Two plants have been operating
obey this simplest principle. Through the demonstration by smoothly and their operation rate reached 97.8% since
models and experiments, four technological routes were eval- April 2007. In 2014, a new FINEX plant was put into oper-
uated: (1) top gas recycling of BF, (2) new smelting reduction ation with an annual pig iron production of 2 million tons.
process (HIsarna), (3) advanced direct reduction process The initial four-stage fluid bed was reformed into a three-
(ULCORED), and (4) electrolytic iron ore process (ULCOWIN). stage fluid bed in this plant, making the fluid bed larger

Figure 6. Technical route of ULCOS programme [49].

8 J. ZHAO ET AL.

emissions, and obtain a large amount of commercially

valuable oxygen, and
(2) Hydrogen flash melting, which is a technology for redu-
cing iron concentrate at the suspension state to obtain
a highly metallized product using a hot reducing gas.
The hot reducing gas comprises several gases, such as
H2, CO produced by incomplete combustion of coal, or
a mixture of H2 and CO.

In 2011, the laboratory test and large-scale industry test were

successfully completed; the results showed that the CO2 emis-
sions were 71, 650 and 1145 kg on using H2, CH4, and coal as
the fuel to produce 1 t of hot metal, respectively. As a com-
parison, conventional BF ironmaking produces up to
1671 kg of CO2 emissions for 1 t of hot metal. Therefore, the
amount of CO2 emitted using the new technology is signifi-
cantly lower than that using the conventional BF ironmaking
Figure 7. Simplified flow diagram of the FINEX process [9]. processes.

and more efficient, and the investment cost was reduced China: non-specific programme
by 15%. In recent years, China’s steel industry has focused more atten-
(2) Hydrogen-enrichment BF ironmaking technology. This tion on energy savings and emission reduction and devel-
technology is similar to the COURSE 50 programme of oped some low-carbon and green ironmaking technologies,
Japan: Both technologies partially use hydrogen instead such as the recovery of sintering waste heat, smelting
of coke to react with the iron ore in the BF. This can sig- reduction ironmaking, BF top gas recovery turbine power,
nificantly reduce the CO2 emissions in the process of dry dedusting for converter flue gas, etc. [58–67]. Some of
iron making. The short-term goal of POSCO is to use the them have realized industrial application. Figure 8 shows
byproduct gas produced in the steel production process the two main smelting reduction ironmaking processes that
to produce hydrogen. The medium and long-term goals have been industrialized in China. The first is COREX-3000
are to develop a technology that can produce high- [63], which is designed to use lump ores and pellets as the
purity hydrogen at a low cost. iron-bearing feed and coal as the energy source. The pre-
(3) CCS technology. POSCO is committed to the research of reduction and final reduction of iron oxide are respectively
ammonia usage to absorb and separate CO2 from BF performed in a pre-reduction shaft furnace and smelting
gas. This technology uses low-temperature waste heat gasification furnace, wherein coke bed can be formed in the
from steel plants as a needed heat energy to absorb smelting gasification furnace after coking process of lump
CO2, thereby reducing the costs. The use of this technol- coal. The first COREX-3000 was put into production in Novem-
ogy commenced in 2006, and the first pilot plant ber of 2011 and the second COREX-3000 was constructed in
started operation in December of 2008. The processing the same year and produced in 2012. After more than 4
capacity was 50 Nm3 h−1 with the CO2 capture years of operation in Baosteel, the production has been
efficiency being greater than 90% and CO2 concentration smooth and the main technical indicators have been greatly
no less than 95%. The second set of demonstration equip- improved. The production capacity, fuel ratio and coke ratio
ment was built in 2010 with a processing capacity of are respectively 1.5 million t a−1, 900 kg t−1 and 128 kg t−1.
1000 Nm3 h−1. It is expected that the CO2 daily capture As compared to the BF process, it still lacks competitiveness
capacity will reach approximately 10 t in a few years. in fuel ratio, flexibility of materials and cost. Therefore, it
(4) The technology of waste heat recovery and power gener- was relocated to the Bayi iron and steel branch of China
ation. This technology applies the thermal siphon effect Baowu Steel Group Corporation Limited in 2013, considering
to recover heat energy from flue gas and the heat the low price of fuel in Xinjiang. Now the COREX has been
energy is then used for power generation. In 2010, the improved significantly through utilization of coke, pulverized
experimental equipment of flue gas waste heat recovery coal injection from vault of smelting gasification furnace and
was established. gas recycling etc.
The second process is HIsmelt [62], which was put into pro-
duction in Shandong Melong Group. The HIsmelt process is
USA: AISI programme
one of the smelting reduction ironmaking technologies that
The AISI programme executed by the US Department of has already achieved industrial production. Its unique
Energy and US Steel Association aims to reduce CO2 emissions process conditions are especially suitable for the smelting of
from the steel industry by replacing coke with a variety of high-phosphorus ore and titanomagnetite. Since putting
clean energy sources and using CO2 capture and storage tech- into operation in 2016, its operation level has been continu-
nology [9,44]. At present, two carbon-free ironmaking tech- ously improved through upgrading and optimization: As a
nologies have been developed: result, the production capacity and operation rate improved
greatly. Since the second half of 2017, it has been running
(1) Molten oxidation electrolysis, the main purpose of which steadily and reliably with a monthly output of 50,000 t and
is to eliminate the use of BF and coke ovens, reduce CO2 the actual production cost of hot metal is approximately
 IRONMAKING & STEELMAKING 9

Figure 8. Flow chat of COREX and HIsmelt processes: (a) COREX (b) HIsmelt [9].

2100 ¥ t−1. It is expected that the production cost will be 16 basic and applied research institutes from different
reduced to approximately 1700 ¥ t−1 after further optimiz- industries are participating in the project as partners,
ation and upgrading. which will facilitate the building of a new network for
However, COREX and HIsmelt pay an extra cost for process steel production, power generation, and chemical pro-
energy utilization and process and equipment conditions, duction. Funded by more than 60 million EUR from the
especially in terms of energy efficiency, which can not German federal ministry of education and research, the
compete with BF. Furthermore, these processes do not have project is part of the climate change initiative
significant carbon reduction and energy conservation [Link].
advantages. (3) Sweden: ‘Carbon-Dioxide-Free Steel Industry’ programme
[70]. In Sweden, steelmaker SSAB, united with mining
company LKAB, and energy company Vattenfall launched
Other programmes a ‘Carbon-Dioxide-Free Steel Industry’ scheme in the
spring of 2016 to tackle carbon dioxide emissions from
In the context of continued warming and deterioration of the
the Swedish steel industry. The project aims to conceive
global climate, CO2 reduction has become an extremely
the process in which hydrogen replaces coal and coke
urgent task in the steel industry. Other countries have also
used in BFs and ultimately generates water instead of
developed corresponding CO2 reduction programmes
carbon dioxide. The specific research content includes
according to their national conditions:
the pellet production process without fossil fuels, direct
reduction process using hydrogen as raw material,
(1) Austria: project ‘H2Future’ for green hydrogen production
sponge iron in electric furnaces, and power supply for
[68]. To produce green hydrogen, the EU’s Horizon 2020
hydrogen production and storage.
project has invested 12 million euros in the implemen-
tation of the H2Future project. The project is aimed at
In addition to the above three programmes, the National
employing the proton exchange membrane technology
Steel Project of the Canada Steel Production Association is
to produce green hydrogen for industrial requirements
focused on the study of the use of biomass energy to
and power storage in electrolytic cells: The total budget
replace fossil fuels in steel production [71]. Brazil’s Arcelor-
of the project is approximately 18 million EUR, and it
Mittal is developing biomass carbon smelting technology
spans 4.5 years. Currently, a pilot plant is being built,
that uses artificially planted eucalyptus forests as fuel for
which will be the world’s largest electrolytic plant that
small-scale BF (with production capacity of 30,000 t year−1)
produces green hydrogen. The plant, which will be built
[72]. The Australian Steel Company has studied two CO2 emis-
in Linz, Austria, will produce green hydrogen directly
sion reduction projects: Using biomass as a BF fuel to achieve
into the internal exhaust network, which will test the
carbon balance and zero CO2 emissions, and recovery of the
use of hydrogen in different processes of steel pro-
residual heat in the molten slag for dry granulation [73].
duction. In the H2Future programme, the main problem
Among these programmes, the ULCOS project in Europe
to be solved is evaluating the application potential and
and the COURSE50 project in Japan are currently the most
feasibility of green hydrogen in different stages of steel
comprehensive establishments. The development of these
production.
technologies will help in solving the problem of excessive
(2) Germany: ‘Carbon2Chem’ programme [69]. Car-
CO2 emissions from current steel companies.
bon2Chem is a 10-year collaborative research project
initiated by the German company Thyssen Krupp to
convert the waste gas from steel plants into raw materials
Suggestions and expectations
for chemical products that will no longer release the
greenhouse gas CO2 into the atmosphere. ‘Carbon2Chem’ The current hot technologies of low-carbon ironmaking and
features extensive, cross-industry cooperation. A total of innovative low-carbon ironmaking processes of the steel
10 J. ZHAO ET AL.

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