Jinnan Iron & Steel: Create a precedent for "steel, coking, hydrogen and electricity" integrated coupling and carbon reduction
In the context of "double carbon", steel, chemical, electric power, transportation, construction and other industries are important areas for China to implement the "double carbon" strategy, and reducing carbon emissions is a technical problem that needs to be overcome jointly for these industries and related enterprises.
Jinnan Iron and Steel Woneng Chemical Plant Area
Shanxi Jinnan Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jinnan Iron and Steel) has successfully created a modern model of low-carbon and high-quality development of the integrated industry of "steel, coking, hydrogen and electricity" in recent years, which has typical demonstration and leading significance for the coupled development and coordinated carbon reduction of the above-mentioned industries. What are the unusual features of this new model, what are the outstanding advantages in carbon reduction and emission reduction, and what is the significance of this new model for the green and low-carbon development of the industry? This article will lead readers into Jinnan Iron and Steel to find out.
Multi-process coupling and integration of high-end chemicals with tempering and co-production
In order to achieve energy conservation and carbon reduction in steel plants, Jinnan Iron and Steel has set its sights on coke oven gas and converter gas, which were originally used for combustion or power generation, which are also the focus of carbon emissions. In line with the tenet of "maximizing the value of resources", in 2017, Jinnan Iron and Steel established a wholly-owned subsidiary, Shanxi Woneng Chemical Technology Co., Ltd., to jointly undertake the project of "Development and Industrialization of LNG Technology for Coupling Ethylene Glycol from Converter Gas and Coke Oven Gas" with a number of cooperative units. The project was completed and put into operation on July 1, 2020.
The project has the following significant advantages.
First, the process technology is leading. The project adopts the country's first set of coke oven gas and converter gas as raw gas to synthesize ethylene glycol equipment, and realizes carbon monoxide separation and hydrogen separation through new purification processes such as raw gas deoxygenation, dephosphorization and desulfurization, and adopts foreign advanced high-chemical ethylene glycol synthesis technology, which is more reliable in safe, stable and high-load operation.
Second, the advantages of energy gradient utilization are prominent. First, the by-product gas of the steel and coking process is sent to the chemical production unit for chemical product synthesis, and then the by-product hydrogen of the chemical process is returned to the steel process for reuse, which realizes the full closed-loop low-carbon production mode of maximizing the value of gas resources in the steel and coking process and reusing the hydrogen by-product of the chemical industry, and the comprehensive energy consumption of steel and coking has been greatly reduced, reaching the benchmark level of the "Energy Efficiency Benchmarking Level and Benchmark Level in Key Areas of High Energy-consuming Industries (2021 Edition)" formulated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Third, the digital integrated management and control technology of energy medium is leading. With the goal of coke oven gas, converter gas co-production of ethylene glycol and LNG, Jinnan Iron & Steel has realized the coupling matching and intelligent scheduling of energy media such as steam and nitrogen in the iron and steel industry and the gas used in chemical production, and the co-disposal and utilization of chemical production wastewater, waste and steel production, and realized the balance of materials and energy in the co-production of tempering, and the synergy of material flow and energy flow, which effectively reduced carbon dioxide emissions, and achieved the goal of coupling cost reduction and carbon reduction between industries.
Fourth, the economic benefits are obvious. The cost of synthesizing ethylene glycol from coke oven gas and converter gas is about 3,000 yuan/ton, and the cost of LNG is about 2,000 yuan/ton. The sales price of ethylene glycol co-produced is 4000~5000 yuan/ton, the sales price of LNG in summer is 5000~6000 yuan/ton, and 7000~8000 yuan/ton in winter, and the economic benefits are very significant.
Zhang Tianfu, President of Jinnan Iron and Steel, introduced the company to Bao Xinhe, President of the University of Science and Technology of China and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhao Jungui, Vice President and Secretary-General of the China Petrochemical Federation, and Cui Xuejun, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of China Chemical Industry News Co., Ltd.
On October 19, 2022, the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation organized experts to hold a scientific and technological achievement appraisal meeting for the project of "Development and Industrialization of Ethylene Glycol Co-production LNG Technology by Coupling Converter Gas and Coke Oven Gas". Experts at the meeting believed that the project aimed at the technical problems of steel, coking and chemical co-production, with the goal of co-production of ethylene glycol and LNG, and completed the integrated process of converter gas and coke oven gas as raw materials for the coupling preparation of target products of the same enterprise through multi-process coupling and integrated development, realizing the balance of materials and energy, and achieving the effect of energy saving and carbon reduction. This technology realizes the coupling of the steel industry and the chemical industry to produce high-end chemical products and clean energy, promotes the coordinated development of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in the process of steel-chemical co-production, and achieves good economic and social benefits. Experts at the meeting said that the technical indicators of the achievement are advanced, the applicability is strong, and it has reached the international advanced level. The scientific and technological achievements have a good role in promoting the scientific and technological innovation and production and operation of Jinnan Iron and Steel, creating a precedent for steel coking and hydrogen co-production, and also playing a positive role in promoting the technological progress and green and sustainable development of China's iron and steel industry.
The development of photovoltaic and green power paints a background color for green and low-carbon development
The comprehensive layout of photovoltaic green power and large-scale green power for many years in advance are the cornerstones of the development of Jinnan Iron and Steel's green hydrogen industry.
Photovoltaic on the water of Taizi Lake.
The Group cooperated with China Huaneng to build a 1,300 MW photovoltaic "new energy + energy storage" project to promote regional rural revitalization through the complementary development model of agriculture and photovoltaics. Among them, the first phase of the 300 MW photovoltaic project has been connected to the grid at full capacity in June 2023, with an average annual power generation of 410 million kWh, which can save about 125,000 tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 342,000 tons per year. At the same time, the Group has built a 120 MW distributed photovoltaic power generation project in the idle vacant land, factory roof, factory wall, parking lot carport and other areas in the factory area, effectively reducing the carbon emissions of the enterprise through vigorously developing photovoltaic green power, making green and low-carbon the eternal background color of high-quality development.
Over the years, Jinnan Iron and Steel has seized the opportunity of China's vigorous development of the photovoltaic industry, and should be built to seize the commanding heights. The development of photovoltaic shows the following characteristics: first, there are rich scenes, and photovoltaic power generation has been built in different scenarios such as factory roofs, parking lots, saline-alkali land in the park, and water in Taizi Lake; Second, the scale is huge, with a total area of more than 30,000 mu of photovoltaic facilities, which improves the comprehensive utilization efficiency of land; Third, the investment is high, and the total investment in photovoltaic facilities is expected to reach 4.5 billion yuan to promote the high-quality development of the regional economy. These photovoltaic panels are continuously converting the sun's light energy into clean electricity, and the follow-up Jinnan Iron and Steel will produce hydrogen and oxygen through photovoltaic for steel production, providing a strong guarantee for building the whole process of green steel, iron, coke and chemical. At present, the cost of photovoltaic power generation for 1 kilowatt-hour does not exceed 0.3 yuan, which is much lower than that of power grid purchases, and the cost is further decreasing.
Replace oil with electricity and drive the future with electricity. Jinnan Iron and Steel is promoting the project of replacing all loaders with electric loaders. On June 27, 2023, the Group held a handover ceremony for 50 electric loaders. Replacing oil with electricity is not only green and low-carbon, but also has obvious economic advantages, which can save 604,800 yuan/vehicle per year.
In the next step, Jinnan Iron and Steel will expand and consolidate the construction of green hydrogen and green power in the plant, rapidly promote new energy projects such as comprehensive energy islands, hydrogen purification, photovoltaic + energy storage, wind power generation, and photovoltaic brackets, further optimize the energy structure, accelerate green transformation, continue to improve the regional air environment, and promote green, low-carbon and high-quality development in an all-round way.
Hydrogen-rich low-carbon metallurgy leads the country in carbon emissions per ton of steel
Green hydrogen is the key to promoting the low-carbon development of the process industry, and the exploration of this type of process has been unabated in the industry.
Jinnan Iron & Steel has the country's leading low-carbon row and long-process steel production line, independently designed and built the first 1860 cubic meter blast furnace large-scale injection chemical hydrogen-rich gas industrial application project in China, and developed the triple intelligent safety control technology of "physical self-protection + process self-protection intelligent interlocking + emergency self-protection cut-off" for blast furnace hydrogen injection, realizing long-term stable and efficient blast furnace injection. The injection of 30 cubic meters of hydrogen per ton of iron can replace 12 kilograms of coke, which can reduce coke consumption by 91,000 tons and carbon dioxide emissions by 280,000 tons per year based on the Group's existing annual production of molten iron. At present, the Group has mastered and effectively applied hydrogen-rich low-carbon smelting technology to achieve "hydrogen instead of carbon".
At present, the standard carbon emission value per ton of steel in the industry is 1.8 tons, and after the application of "steel-coke-chemical-hydrogen" co-production, the carbon emission value per ton of steel is 1.4 tons, which is 77.78% of the average carbon emission per ton of steel in the domestic steel industry, a decrease of 22.22%; The comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel in the industry is 538 kg of standard coal, and that of Jinnan Iron and Steel is 482 kg of standard coal, which is 89.59% of the domestic average, a decrease of 10.41%; The comprehensive power consumption per ton of steel in the industry is 471 kWh, and that of Jinnan Iron and Steel is 330 kWh, which is 70.06% of the domestic average, a decrease of 29.94%, and is at the leading level in the industry.
In June 2023, the project won the 2023 Metallurgical Science and Technology Award. Since the implementation of the project, nearly 100 units have visited the factory and exchanged technology, which has attracted extensive attention from the domestic steel industry and played an important leading and exemplary role in the development of domestic blast furnace hydrogen metallurgy.
Promote hydrogen energy heavy trucks to create green and zero-carbon trunk logistics
Hydrogen energy is an ideal clean energy, and it is also an important way to promote the reform of the energy structure and achieve the "dual carbon" goal. Relying on the "steel-coke-chemical-hydrogen" full-cycle low-carbon industrial chain, Jinnan Iron & Steel continues to expand the application scenarios of hydrogen energy, and strives to build the group into a full-process green steel enterprise through the implementation of hydrogen energy heavy trucks, effectively improving the regional ecological environment, and achieving green, low-carbon and high-quality development.
Jinnan Iron and Steel Hydrogen Refueling Station.
At present, Jinnan Iron and Steel has the world's largest hydrogen refueling station, with 9,000 kg of hydrogen per day, and has the country's first zero-carbon hydrogen energy heavy-duty truck transportation network. At present, Jinnan Iron and Steel has an annual output of about 45,000 tons of 99.999% hydrogen, in addition to some for production, most of which can be used for hydrogen energy heavy trucks, according to the daily consumption of 35 kg of hydrogen per hydrogen energy heavy truck, which can meet the hydrogen refueling demand of 4,000 hydrogen energy heavy trucks.
In recent years, Jinnan Iron and Steel has carried out strategic cooperation with Universiade Group, Nanjing Jinlong, FAW Jiefang, and Meijin Energy to lay out the hydrogen energy heavy truck industry chain in advance. In August 2022, the hydrogen purification and hydrogen refueling station for proton membrane jointly built by Jinnan Iron and Steel and Hangyang Co., Ltd. is currently the largest hydrogen refueling station in China, which can fill 9,000 kg of hydrogen per day at full load, which can meet the refueling of 300 hydrogen energy vehicles. In August 2022, the first batch of 300 hydrogen energy heavy trucks of Jinnan Iron and Steel was delivered, building an innovation system for the hydrogen energy industry chain. Taking this as a starting point, the group has also established the "Tianheng Hydrogen Energy" zero-carbon logistics platform, which realizes the functions of automatic matching of supply of goods, one-click dispatch and automatic settlement through the analysis of big data on the platform, with the goal of providing green highway logistics and transportation sharing services for more Shanxi steel coking enterprises. On June 27, 2023, Jinnan Iron and Steel held a delivery ceremony for 100 hydrogen energy heavy trucks, which is an important measure for the company to once again make efforts in the field of new energy, and it is also a concrete practice to promote the green transformation and upgrading of energy in an all-round way and help achieve the goal of "Linfen Green Transportation Pilot City".
Jinnan Iron & Steel hydrogen energy heavy truck has three major advantages. First, the hydrogen consumption per kilometer of hydrogen heavy trucks is 1.8 yuan, which is 0.3 yuan/km less than that of fuel vehicles and 0.2 yuan/km less than that of LNG vehicles. Second, the current carbon rights trading price is 60 yuan/ton, according to the average annual mileage of 300,000 kilometers of hydrogen vehicles, each vehicle will reduce carbon emissions by about 300 tons per year, and the carbon rights income will be 18,000 yuan/car/year. Third, as a clean transportation, hydrogen energy heavy trucks will be promoted at full speed.
In the future, Jinnan Iron and Steel will take the "zero-carbon smart logistics platform" of hydrogen energy heavy trucks as a breakthrough to promote the use of 10,000 hydrogen energy heavy trucks in Linfen City; Shanxi's unique hydrogen resources are used to achieve pollution reduction, carbon reduction, and clean transportation. In line with the principle of "large quantity and optimal", the Group will attract more upstream and downstream enterprises such as hydrogen fuel stacks, hydrogen storage tanks, water electrolysis hydrogen production and automobile assembly plants supporting hydrogen energy heavy trucks to invest in Linfen to build factories, form a hydrogen energy industry cluster, and build a hydrogen energy industry incubation base and a hydrogen energy town demonstration park.
Jinnan Iron and Steel will also actively promote the win-win development project of hydrogenation in Shanxi, deepen cooperation with Meijin Energy Group Co., Ltd. and Shanxi Pengfei Group Co., Ltd., complement each other's advantages, extend the industrial chain upwards and downwards, plan and develop the "one center, two vertical, three horizontal" chains, and form an integrated circular economy industry with hydrogen production, hydrogen storage, hydrogen transportation, hydrogen refueling, hydrogen use and other industrial chains.
"In the next step, we will continue to optimize hydrogen metallurgy-related technologies, gradually shift from hydrogen-rich blast furnace process to hydrogen-based shaft furnace direct reduction ironmaking process, use CCUS technology at the output end, and build a full-process green steel demonstration enterprise through large-scale layout of green power and green hydrogen industries, and strive to achieve the goal of '1 ton of steel and 1 ton of carbon emissions' by 2025, become the country's leading near-zero carbon steel enterprise by 2050, and build a national demonstration base for ultra-energy efficiency green steel and a national demonstration base for CCUS technology application." Zhang Tianfu, president of Jinnan Iron and Steel, said with confidence.
Business cards
Jinnan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd., located in Quwo Economic and Technological Development Zone, Linfen City, Shanxi Province, is a green and low-carbon demonstration enterprise integrating steel, coking, high-end chemicals, new energy, etc., and will be rated as one of the top 500 Chinese enterprises (377th), one of China's top 500 private enterprises (179th), and one of China's top 500 manufacturing enterprises (193rd) in 2023.
In recent years, Jinnan Iron and Steel has successively built 3 1,860 cubic meter blast furnaces, 3 150-ton converters, 2 6.25-meter side-loading coke ovens, 2 7-meter top-loading coke ovens, 150,000 tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects with an annual output of 300,000 tons of ethylene glycol co-production, and 600,000 tons of welding wire intelligent manufacturing projects.
At present, the group has an annual production scale of 7.5 million tons of iron, 9.5 million tons of steel, 12 million tons of lumber, 3.15 million tons of coke, 450,000 tons of high-end chemical products and 45,000 tons of hydrogen energy supply, involving four major sectors: steel, coking, high-end chemicals and new energy. The Group's main steel products include high-quality carbon structural steel, high-quality carbon low-alloy steel and other long products, and can produce 6.5 million tons of profiles annually, making it an influential green profile production base in the central and western regions.
Jinnan Iron & Steel's vision is to be a pioneer of China's near-zero carbon steel enterprises and a practitioner of green and low-carbon innovative industrial development. After years of development, the Group's industrial chain status, green development, and intelligent technology innovation have been widely praised and won a number of awards. In May 2022, Jinnan Iron and Steel was awarded the "Chain Master" enterprise of the hydrogen energy industry chain of Shanxi Province's key industrial chain by the Shanxi Provincial People's Government; In September 2022, it was awarded the "Top 500 Chinese Enterprises" by the China Entrepreneurs Association; In October 2022, it was awarded the "Shanxi Provincial Technology Innovation Demonstration Enterprise" by the Shanxi Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, and the "Enterprise Credit Evaluation AAA Credit Enterprise" by the China Entrepreneurs Association; In December 2022, it was awarded the "Intelligent Manufacturing Benchmarking Enterprise" by the Shanxi Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology; In February 2023, Jinnan Iron and Steel was awarded the first batch of "A-level enterprises with environmental performance" in Shanxi Province; In March 2023, it was rated as "Industrial Internet Pilot Demonstration Enterprise" and "National Green Factory" by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; In 2023, the Group's coking plant will complete the ultra-low emission transformation and become the first batch of ultra-low emission private coking enterprises in Shanxi Province.
Five major innovation points of "steel coking hydrogen electricity".
For a long time, the traditional utilization methods of coke oven gas, converter gas and blast furnace gas in the steel coking industry are combustion or power generation, resulting in high energy consumption and large carbon dioxide emissions in the industry. The low-carbon and green development technology route of "steel coking hydrogen electricity" can fully promote the new process of steel cogeneration and hydrogen energy smelting, a large number of renewable energy such as photovoltaic green electricity, and the full use of hydrogen energy heavy trucks for clean transportation, with five major innovation points.
●First, in order to realize the high value-added cascade utilization of various gas values within the group, we creatively integrate various internal resources, send blast furnace gas to coke ovens, and replace the coke oven gas required for coke oven production with blast furnace gas.
●The second is to send all the high-quality coke oven gas to the chemical production unit, and then send the converter gas generated in the steelmaking process to the chemical production unit synchronously, and the coke oven gas and converter gas are purified to synthesize ethylene glycol and LNG products, so as to realize the coupling of the steel coking hydrogen industry and the high value-added utilization of carbon sequestration and gas resources.
●Third, in chemical production, the PSA adsorption process will also produce a certain amount of hydrogen-rich tail gas, and by creatively sending the hydrogen-rich tail gas or pure hydrogen produced by the chemical plant to the blast furnace, a new path of hydrogen energy smelting and a closed-loop industrial synergy of steel-chemical industry coupling have been opened.
●Fourth, the intermediate product in the production process of the chemical plant, that is, hydrogen with a purity of 99.9%, is deeply processed, and the purity of hydrogen reaches 99.999% after pressure swing adsorption purification, which meets the gas demand of hydrogen energy heavy trucks, so that the extraction and application of hydrogen energy can be expanded into a hydrogen energy industry chain separately.
●Fifth, the use of saline-alkali land, open space, lake, roof, wall, etc. to build photovoltaic projects, and have been connected to the grid, will use photovoltaic hydrogen production, oxygen production, for enterprise production, to create the whole process of green steel coking to provide green guarantee.
