Extreme energy efficiency transformation: the only way to develop China's new steel productivity
According to the website of the China Iron and Steel Association, in late March 2024, eight iron and steel enterprises will carry out ultra-low emission transformation and evaluate and monitor the progress of publicity. As of March 22, 2024, a total of 130 steel companies have announced their ultra-low emission transformation and assessment and monitoring progress.
Pollution reduction and carbon reduction is an eternal topic for the steel industry to promote green transformation. While the ultra-low emission transformation is progressing in an orderly manner, more and more attention has been paid to how the steel industry can tap the potential of energy conservation and carbon reduction.
Recently, the "Energy Conservation Service into Enterprises" and the 2024 Iron and Steel Industry Energy Efficiency Improvement Seminar sponsored by the Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute and the Metallurgical Industry Energy Conservation Professional Committee of the China Energy Conservation Association were held in Jiangyin, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. At the meeting, Feng Chao, deputy secretary-general of China Iron and Steel Association, said that following the "capacity replacement" and "ultra-low emission", the third largest transformation project covering the whole industry - the "extreme energy efficiency" project was officially launched in December 2022.
There is still potential for the comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel
"During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, although the steel industry has exceeded the established energy-saving targets, it is still facing the problem of large total energy consumption and difficult transformation of energy consumption structure, and the comprehensive energy consumption index per ton of products still has a certain potential to decline. Fang Qing, chairman of the board of supervisors of the China Energy Conservation Association, said.
According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, the comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel in the steel industry in 2022 increased by 1.7% compared with 2021, and the comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel of key enterprises in the statistics of China Iron and Steel Association from January to December 2023 was 558.34 kg of standard coal, an increase of 6.98 kg of standard coal or 1.27% over the same period of the previous year.
The relevant person of the National Energy Conservation Center said at the seminar that key industries and service industries are the main areas of energy consumption growth in the whole society. Affected by factors such as the scarring effect of the epidemic, the intensification of international geopolitical games, and the sharp fluctuations in international commodity prices, the reduction in energy intensity continues to narrow, and there is great pressure to complete the energy-saving target in the next two years.
According to the mid-term assessment report on the implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 released by the National Development and Reform Commission, China's progress in reducing energy consumption intensity and carbon emission intensity in the first half of the 14th Five-Year Plan fell behind expectations. This year's government work report clearly states that one of the main expected goals for this year's development is to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by about 2.5%, and the quality of the ecological environment continues to improve.
"At this stage, the steel industry is under the guidance of the China Iron and Steel Association to comprehensively promote the 'ultimate energy efficiency' project, which is consistent with the concept that we have been promoting energy-saving technology and high-efficiency energy-saving equipment as the most important starting point for energy conservation in the industry, and persistently and persistently calling for the industry to carry out green transformation. Fang Qing said.
It is worth mentioning that on March 13, the State Council issued a notice on the issuance of the "Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), aiming to achieve energy-saving levels of energy efficiency in major energy-using equipment in key industries by 2027.
The plan proposes to focus on promoting new industrialization, focusing on energy conservation and carbon reduction, ultra-low emission, safe production, digital transformation, and intelligent upgrading, focusing on key industries such as iron and steel, and vigorously promoting the renewal and technological transformation of production equipment, energy-using equipment, power generation, transmission and distribution equipment. Accelerate the promotion of energy-using equipment with advanced energy efficiency and energy-saving levels, and implement energy-saving and carbon-reduction transformation in different industries and fields.
Feng Chao believes that this large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in to improve technology, reduce energy consumption and emissions-oriented, will promote the development of the industry in a green, low-carbon and sustainable direction, and then promote the consumption of green and low-carbon steel throughout the life cycle.
The only way to develop new steel productivity
"Energy efficiency improvement has become the most important, most effective and most economical means to reduce production costs in the industry, and it is also the most important means for enterprises to reduce carbon emissions. Gao Xue, deputy chief engineer of the Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute, said that generally speaking, the energy production cost of iron and steel enterprises accounts for about 25%-40% of the total production cost, and the energy utilization cost of outstanding energy-saving enterprises and backward energy-saving enterprises can differ by about 300 yuan per ton. In the long-term state of low profits, who controls energy costs, whose competitive advantage will be greater.
According to reports, relying on the development of the "extreme energy efficiency project" series of work, a large number of iron and steel enterprises have further improved the level of energy efficiency, promoted the promotion and application of advanced technology and successful experience in the field of iron and steel energy conservation and carbon reduction, and brought tangible results to iron and steel enterprises.
For example, Baosteel Co., Ltd. carried out the ultimate energy efficiency pilot action, forming a three-in-one comprehensive action plan around internal potential, main and auxiliary joint forces, and external tree image, covering 100% of the company's iron and steel, hot and cold production lines and public and auxiliary areas, and completed more than 70 energy-saving projects during the year, with technical energy savings of 319,000 tons of standard coal. In 2023, Shougang Co., Ltd. will propose 14 company-level energy-saving transformation projects and 41 process-level energy-saving transformation projects, and through the implementation of the transformation, a total of 117,400 tons of energy will be saved during the year, and the energy consumption of ironmaking and converter processes will be reduced by 9.04kgce/t and 0.88kgce/t respectively.
In Jiangyin, where the seminar was held, Jiangyin Xingcheng Special Steel Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xingcheng Special Steel), a subsidiary of CITIC Pacific Special Steel Group, located on the bank of the Yangtze River, has just been selected into the list of new "lighthouse factories" released by the World Economic Forum, becoming the first "lighthouse factory" in the global special steel industry.
The "black box transparency" of blast furnace is a key project for Xingcheng Special Steel to reduce carbon emissions in the production process. The so-called "black box transparency" of the blast furnace is to realize the all-round simulation of the blast furnace by using hundreds of metallurgical mechanism models and combining artificial intelligence, understand the air flow in the furnace, the movement of the charge, the slag hanging on the furnace wall and other information, and get rid of the previous state of relying on experience to make iron and blind people touching the elephant.
According to Xingcheng Special Steel's statistics, after the use of this system, the total gas consumption of the plant's three blast furnaces decreased by about 100 million cubic meters in 2022, which is equivalent to a reduction of 100,000 tons of carbon emissions.In 2022, the carbon emissions per ton of steel of enterprises decreased by 10.47% compared with 2020.
"The extreme energy efficiency renovation project has formed a broad consensus in the industry, and has been promoted in the whole industry through good experience, good measures and good technology, bringing a very considerable amount of energy conservation and carbon reduction. It can be said that this work not only improves the efficiency of enterprises, but also promotes the industry's energy conservation and carbon reduction work. Feng Chao pointed out that the extreme energy efficiency transformation project is the only way to develop China's new steel productivity, realize the continuous decline of energy and carbon emissions of iron and steel enterprises, and cultivate new models and new kinetic energy of the steel industry.
"The accelerated development of the iron and steel industry to form a new quality of productivity, is not only the current situation, but also the inevitable development of the times, to grasp the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation brought about by the historic opportunity, make full use of modern advanced technology to transform and upgrade traditional industries, in the green transformation of forging a new industrial competitive advantage. ”Ding Zhijun, deputy director of the Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out thatThe iron and steel industry plays an important role in industrial energy conservation and carbon reduction and green and low-carbon, and it is necessary to make good use of various means such as technology promotion, benchmarking and low-carbon transformation, to systematically promote energy conservation and carbon reduction and green development of the iron and steel industry, and should focus on three aspects: one is to promote the promotion and application of advanced energy-saving technology as the starting point to promote technical energy conservation; the second is to strengthen energy efficiency and meet the standards as the key to promote management and energy conservation; and the third is to promote structural energy conservation guided by the clean and low-carbon transformation of energy use.
