Posted on 16 Jun 2022
Japanese steel producers Nippon Steel, JFE Steel and Kobe Steel and The Japan Research and Development Center for Metals (JRCM), as well as Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) have formed a consortium to advance the "Green Innovation (GI) Fund Project/Hydrogen Utilization Project in Steelmaking Processes".
This project will focus on the development of hydrogen reduction technology using blast furnaces and the development of direct hydrogen reduction technology of low-grade iron ore with hydrogen only, Kallanish learns from the currently disclosed research program.
Specifically, the first research project will test technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the steelmaking process by 50% or more on the No.2 blast furnace at Nippon Steel's Kimitsu plant and a pilot blast furnace at JFE's Chiba area in April and May 2025, respectively. The blast furnace at Nippon Steel's Kimitsu Plant will also introduce normal-temperature hydrogen blowing equipment in the second half of 2025 to develop hydrogen reduction technology.
These parties will also test direct hydrogen reduction technology and technology for controlling the concentration of impurities in a large-scale test electric arc furnace in 2024-2025.
In 2019, carbon dioxide emissions from Japan's steel industry accounted for 15% of Japan's energy emissions, reaching 150 million tonnes, Nippon Steel's data shows. The country hopes to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 30% (about 57.9 million tonnes) by 2030 on the basis of the level in fiscal 2013, and become carbon neutral by 2050.
Source:Kallanish
