As a key carbon emission industry, low-carbon development is the most important issue facing the iron and steel industry at present and in the future. On December 15, 2021, the second China Iron and steel low carbon development goal and path seminar was held in Beijing. The seminar was jointly organized by Rio Tinto, Baowu and Tsinghua University of China, and invited well-known experts and scholars inside and outside the industry to discuss the current situation, challenges, vision and action plan of green and low-carbon transformation of the iron and steel industry.


Accelerate the formation of a green and low-carbon circular development industrial system


Director of China's national climate change expert committee He Jiankun, director of the academic committee of the Institute of climate change and sustainable development of Tsinghua University, said: "global climate change is a global ecological crisis facing human society. The negative impact of climate change is becoming increasingly prominent and the global climate risk is becoming stronger. The world must strengthen cooperation and take positive actions to jointly deal with the earth's ecological crisis and realize the harmonious development between man and nature." We have set the goal of controlling the global temperature rise to no more than 2 degrees Celsius before the industrial revolution and trying to reduce it to 1.5 degrees Celsius. To achieve this goal, we need to vigorously reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By the middle of the 21st century, or even the second half of the 21st century, to achieve the balance between greenhouse gas source emissions and carbon sink removal, all countries in the world should strive to achieve this goal. "


The global long-term goal orientation of carbon neutrality will intensify the revolutionary changes in the world economy and technology, and will also change the international economic and trade rules and the direction of enterprise development. Deep decarbonization technology and low-carbon development capacity will become the core competitiveness of a country and an enterprise. "As a developing country, China's ecological environment is fragile and vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. Adapting to climate change is an arduous task facing China. Positive measures are being taken to enhance the ability to resist climate disasters, improve the climate resilience of economy, society and ecosystem, and ensure the safety of economy, society and people. China has also actively carried out mitigation actions and announced that carbon dioxide emissions will reach a peak by 2030 and a peak by 2060 The independent emission reduction target of carbon neutralization has updated the national 2030 national independent decision contribution (NDC) target and action plan, and formulated a series of policies and measures. " He Jiankun said.


Iron and steel industry is an important pillar industry of China's national economy and an industry with high energy consumption and high carbon emission. In order to realize the vision of carbon neutralization, China's iron and steel industry should strengthen technological innovation, innovate production processes, develop circular economy and take the high-quality development path of deep decarbonization, which is of great significance to achieve the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutralization.


He Jiankun emphasized: "China's vision of achieving carbon neutrality is an important symbol of a modern power and the embodiment of its core competitiveness. Therefore, it is hoped that China's iron and steel industry can formulate and improve the long-term low-carbon development strategy under the guidance of the long-term carbon neutrality vision, make advance deployment and action, especially further accelerate technological innovation, strive for opportunities and advantages in the competition of global advanced decarbonization technologies, build core competitiveness and strengthen the relationship with various industries With the full cooperation of institutions, accelerate the formation of an industrial system of green and low-carbon circular development. "


Promote low-carbon development of iron and steel industry


Wen Gang, director of the iron and steel Department of the raw materials department of the Ministry of industry and information technology, said: "to achieve the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutralization is not only China's solemn commitment to build a community with a shared future for mankind, but also a prominent problem for China to solve the constraints of resources and environment. Therefore, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have made a series of decisions and arrangements, comprehensively studied and formulated the" 1 + n "and the policy system of carbon peak and carbon neutralization. As an important basic industry of the national economy, the iron and steel industry is an important support for building a modern power and the main battlefield for realizing green and low-carbon development. The iron and steel industry is duty bound to implement the national decision-making and deployment of carbon peak and carbon neutralization. "


We should correctly understand the low-carbon development of the iron and steel industry. Steel is the backbone supporting industrial civilization. For a long time to come, it will still be one of the sources of strength for human prosperity and development. The central economic work conference proposed that achieving the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutralization is the internal requirement of promoting high-quality development, which should be unswervingly promoted, but it is impossible to accomplish its work in one battle. Therefore, to promote the low-carbon development of the iron and steel industry, we must seek truth from facts, respect the law and science. On the one hand, it is worth to take advantage of the current trend of low-carbon steel manufacturing and other industries in the name of developing countries. On the other hand, it is also worth to take advantage of the current trend of high-carbon steel manufacturing to promote the development of high-carbon steel industries. On the other hand, it is also worth to take advantage of the current trend of low-carbon steel manufacturing and other industries in the name of developing countries On the other hand, there are also some prejudices against the iron and steel industry, such as high energy consumption, high pollution and high emission. Therefore, we should correctly understand and objectively evaluate the attribute and essence of high energy capacity of iron and steel production in combination with the development law and development stage of iron and steel industry, neither avoid nor advance rashly, and actively and steadily promote the low-carbon development of iron and steel industry. " Wen Gang said.


The road of low-carbon development of the iron and steel industry must resolutely implement the "1 + n" decision and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, adhere to the system concept, promote in an overall way, adhere to the first establishment and then destruction, handle the relationship between development and emission reduction, overall and local, short-term and medium and long-term, respect the development law of the industry, and actively take scientific, orderly, pragmatic and effective measures to promote the industry to achieve the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutralization. In order to promote the low-carbon development of the iron and steel industry, Wen Gang put forward four suggestions:


First, adhere to innovation leading. The traditional iron and steel industry path has limited potential for pollution reduction and carbon reduction, which is difficult to meet the target requirements of carbon neutralization. We must take process innovation as the main direction, actively support enterprises to focus on the subversive and revolutionary process technology represented by hydrogen metallurgy and the carbon utilization technology represented by CCUs, and carry out systematic research on the whole process and the whole industrial chain around the basic theory, process route, equipment manufacturing, system integration, etc, Overcome the technical problems of low-carbon steel production.


Second, accelerate transformation and upgrading. Before the new blast furnace smelting process is mature, the blast furnace ironmaking capacity with the largest stock in China should aim at reaching the peak of carbon, strengthen source treatment, process control and end treatment, accelerate the transformation and upgrading of green and low-carbon, improve the utilization efficiency and level of resources and energy, and promote the coordinated development of pollution and carbon reduction through process optimization, the promotion and application of advanced energy-saving and carbon reduction technologies, and the integration of new digital technologies.


Third, promote structural optimization, actively promote the optimization of energy consumption structure, process structure and product structure, reduce process emissions and reduce emissions in the whole life cycle. In terms of energy consumption, we should actively promote coal reduction and alternative consumption, and increase the proportion of new energy utilization. In terms of technology, we should speed up the construction of scrap recycling system, continue to develop electric furnace steelmaking, and promote the efficient utilization of scrap resources. In terms of products, we should enhance the supply capacity of high-end products, accelerate the iterative upgrading of products, strengthen the application of high-strength, high toughness, corrosion-resistant and wear-resistant, lightweight and long-life steel, and reduce the consumption intensity of steel.


Fourth, adhere to openness and cooperation. Low carbon development is a common challenge faced by the world's iron and steel industry. As the largest iron and steel industry country, China's iron and steel industry also has late development advantages and is basically at the same starting line, although it started later than the European Union, Japan and other iron and steel powers in terms of hydrogen metallurgy and low-carbon metallurgy. We should adhere to an open attitude, give full play to the advantages of complete industrial chain, large industrial scale and many employees, strengthen cooperation with iron and steel enterprises and research institutions of various countries, and jointly explore the future development path of low-carbon and green iron and steel industry.


Solidly promote the "double carbon" work


Huang Dao, Deputy Secretary General of China Iron and Steel Industry Association, said: "in the key work such as capacity reduction, output reduction and resource guarantee, the iron and steel industry, in accordance with the industrial policy requirements of all aspects of the national industry, continuously improve the dynamic adaptability of domestic iron and steel product supply and demand, continue to focus on the fundamental task of comprehensively improving the industrial basic capacity and industrial chain level, adhere to green development and intelligent manufacturing development, and focus on solving the three major pain points of the industry (control output expansion, promote industrial security and ensure resource security) and continue to promote the process of internationalization. "


On October 31, 2021 local time, the 26th conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change opened in Glasgow, UK. As a responsible big country, China put forward suggestions on safeguarding multilateral consensus, focusing on practical actions and accelerating green transformation, so as to actively contribute China's wisdom and solutions to addressing global climate change and promoting global climate governance. The Chinese government has successively issued a series of documents to deal with climate change, and a "1 + n" policy system covering the national industrial field of carbon peaking and carbon neutralization is being established.


Huang Dao said that in combination with the development stage and development characteristics of China's iron and steel industry, the carbon peak and carbon neutralization work of the iron and steel industry should not only accelerate the improvement of the utilization rate of clean energy and the research and development of breakthrough low-carbon technologies, processes and equipment from a strategic perspective, but also attach great importance to the promotion, application, transformation and upgrading of advanced energy-saving technologies, continuously improve the system energy efficiency and the utilization efficiency of waste heat and residual energy in the iron and steel industry, and accelerate the digitization and information technology, Help the iron and steel industry save energy and reduce carbon.


China is the world's largest producer and consumer of iron and steel. Accelerating the low-carbon transformation and realizing the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutralization as soon as possible is the only way for the transformation and upgrading of the industry and high-quality development. On the new journey of low-carbon and green, the iron and steel industry will usher in new breakthroughs in process research, new product development and new energy application.


Improving the environmental performance of steel value chain


Climate change is the biggest challenge in the world today. "I very much appreciate China's commitment to measures taken to balance its emissions while maintaining necessary economic growth and social development. In order to deal with climate change, in October 2021, we defined the goal of gradually decarbonizing and planned to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2030, more than three times the previous goal." Said Bai Ruiming, chief commercial officer of Rio Tinto Group and chairman of China.


Bai Ruiming frankly said that in 2019, Rio Tinto signed a memorandum of understanding with China Baowu and Tsinghua University to jointly develop new ways to reduce carbon emissions and improve the environmental performance of the steel value chain. In December 2020, in order to deepen the cooperation with Baowu and Tsinghua University on climate change, Rio Tinto invested US $10 million to jointly build the microwave drying lump ore test device project. At the same time, Rio Tinto is also exploring various ways of decarbonization.