Posted on 22 Jun 2021
Japan is aiming to accelerate technology innovation for hydrogen-based steelmaking, in efforts to help the country's steel industry catch up globally and take the lead in a growing green steel market.
The trade and industry ministry (Meti) today proposed a plan to achieve significant carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction by utilising hydrogen-based steelmaking and direct reduction iron (DRI) technologies. Meti plans to subsidise technology innovation in such steelmaking processes using part of a ¥2 trillion ($18.1bn) government fund created to back green innovation projects for the next 10 years in efforts to decarbonise its society by 2050.
Under the plan, Meti wants the steel industry to commercialise by 2030 a steelmaking technology developed in a "Course 50" project using hydrogen-containing gas in a blast furnace (BF) to boost hydrogen reduction. The Course 50 project was launched in 2008 by Japanese steel mills and has proven it achievable to reduce CO2 emissions by 30pc in steelmaking at a 12m³ test BF, by combining technology to use hydrogen-containing coke oven gas as a reducing agent and technology for highly-efficient CO2 separation and recovery from BF gas.
The ministry is targeting commercial application of the technology to at least one large BF with a 5,000m³-class inner volume by 2030. Japan has 14 BFs with the inner volume of above 5,000m³.
Meti is also encouraging the industry to develop hydrogen reduction steelmaking technology to reduce CO2 emissions by 50pc, either by directly blowing hydrogen into a running BF and replacing part of coke with biomass or DRI, or by using methane synthesised from hydrogen and recovered CO2 as a reducing agent. The ministry is aiming for a demonstration project of the technology at an over 500m³ test BF by 2030.
The steel industry is the biggest CO2 emitter among Japanese manufacturing industries, accounting for 40pc of energy-derived manufacturing CO2 emissions totalling 386mn t in the April 2019-March 2020 fiscal year.
Under the proposed plan, Meti is planning to verify basic technology by 2030, to utilise the DRI process using hydrogen and achieve a 50pc CO2 reduction compared with a conventional BF-based steelmaking. It also wants development of a technology to control impurities in steel produced from a DRI-electric arc furnace (EAF) process by 2030 as part of efforts to continue leveraging high-quality steel production capabilities of Japanese steel mills that meets demand particularly from the car manufacturing industry.
Japanese steel mills have been exploring options to shift to greener steel production as the industry has committed to decarbonise by 2050. Japan's biggest steel mill Nippon Steel plans to explore a large-scale EAF and the use of hydrogen as part of efforts to achieve its 2050 decarbonisation goal.
JFE Steel is working to develop technology to use synthetic methane in BFs as a reducing agent while exploring an iron production process using ferro-coke. Kobe Steel is also working to verify CO2 reduction technology, utilising a DRI process developed by US subsidiary Midrex.
Japan's crude steel output in 2020-21 dropped to its lowest in 52 years of 82.8mn t, pressured by a manufacturing demand slump from the impact of Covid-19. The industry is among the biggest supporters of nuclear power, repeatedly calling on the government to cap power prices, as the industry struggles to expand the use of hydrogen and decarbonise.
Source:Argus
