Iron and steel industry is the foundation and pillar industry of China's economic development, and also one of the key industries of the largest emission of pollutants and carbon dioxide. Its green development is of great significance to the promotion of high-quality development and the comprehensive construction of a modernized socialist country.

"The green transformation of the steel industry has made a positive contribution to the continuous improvement of air quality." At the fifth meeting of the sixth General Assembly of the China Iron and Steel Association on Feb 13, Zhang Dawei, deputy director general of the atmospheric department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, fully affirmed the steel industry's contribution to improving air quality.

According to the introduction, in recent years, the iron and steel industry in the case of a steady increase in production, the realization of "four obvious". First, air quality has improved significantly in areas where steel is concentrated. Compared with 2013, the PM2.5 concentration in the 10 cities with concentrated steel production capacity decreased by 61 percent on average in 2022, and the percentage of good days increased by 32 percentage points on average. 2) Significant breakthroughs were made in adjusting the industrial structure. In the past decade, the number of iron and steel enterprises in China has decreased by 20%, their average size has increased by 56%, and the proportion of production capacity of advanced process equipment for sintering and ironmaking has increased by 20% and 9%, respectively. Third, the level of industrial governance has been significantly improved. Up to now, 240 million tons of crude steel production capacity has been upgraded to ultra-low emissions, and 460 million tons of crude steel production capacity has been upgraded to key projects, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the country's total crude steel production capacity. Fourth, significant progress has been made in green transformation of transport. In particular, it has strongly promoted the consumption of new energy heavy trucks. In 2022, the sales volume of new energy heavy trucks in China increased by 154% year-on-year, mainly in provinces and cities where iron and steel are concentrated.

However, Zhang Dawei pointed out that the continuous improvement of air quality and the green transformation of the steel industry remain arduous tasks, and there is still a lot of work to be done to promote the high-quality development of the steel industry with high-level protection of the ecological environment.

The task of green transformation is still difficult. The steel industry needs to recognize three aspects

Zhang Dawei said that while making achievements, we should also be soberly aware of the problems facing us in three areas.

First, the results of control are not yet stable, and the situation of air pollution is still serious. Although the national PM2.5 concentration has dropped to 29 micrograms per cubic meter in 2022, it is still two to four times the current level in European and American countries, and six times the latest WHO guideline value. "In our country, one-third of the cities still have not reached the standard, mainly concentrated in the densely populated central and eastern areas, and most cities with concentrated iron and steel production capacity have not yet reached the standard." "Air quality still falls far short of the goal of building a beautiful China and the modernization requirement of harmonious coexistence between man and nature," Zhang said. The air quality can easily rebound if there is a slight mistake."

Second, structural problems are prominent, and the green transformation of iron and steel remains a long and arduous task. Zhang Dawei pointed out that the steel industry still ranks first in total emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter among industrial sectors, and also ranks first in carbon dioxide emissions (15 percent) among non-electricity sectors. If transport is added, emissions are even greater. "The root cause is that the structural problems of the industry itself have not been fundamentally improved." He listed that if the process structure is dominated by the long process, the proportion of electric furnace steel output in the total crude steel production is only about 10%, and the global average of 28%, 68% in the United States, 40% in the European Union, and 24% in Japan, the proportion of short process steel; The structure of the charge is mainly sinter with high emission, and the proportion of pellets in the furnace is less than 20%, which is a big gap with European and American countries. The energy structure is dominated by coal. Coal accounts for 92% of the energy purchased by the iron and steel industry. Industrial coal consumption accounts for 20% of the total coal consumption of the country (including coking), ranking first in the non-electricity industry. And so on.

In addition, the industry has insufficient reserves of key technologies for reducing pollution and carbon. "It is urgent to break down technical and policy barriers between the steel and chemical industries, stimulate the impetus of technological innovation in the industries, and accelerate the basic research and engineering application of disruptive and innovative low-carbon metallurgical technologies." Zhang Dawei pointed out that in the face of the "double carbon" target requirements, the steel industry green low-carbon transformation task is difficult.

Third, progress in ultra-low emissions is in line with expectations, but some problems should not be ignored. First, progress in some regions lags behind. Companies listed mainly concentrated in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding areas and the Fen-Wei Plain, while the Yangtze River Delta region made relatively slow progress. At present, only 5 enterprises in non-key areas have completed the whole process transformation and publicized it. Most enterprises in some provinces are in the preliminary stage of transformation. Second, the quality of some enterprises is not high. Some enterprises have some problems, such as unreasonable process selection, incomplete transformation, emphasizing end-management over source prevention and control. Third, the quality of assessment and monitoring work needs to be improved. "Some enterprises are not in place to reform, in order to pass the publicity, on the evaluation and monitoring of the 'crooked mind', the work is not strict and not solid, and even falsification." Zhang Dawei pointed out that in order to improve the quality of assessment and monitoring work, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Steel Association held several discussions in 2022, pushing the association to standardize the report template and strictly enforce publicity, but the problem still exists to varying degrees. Fourth, individual enterprises relax management after publicity, and even illegal behavior.

To protect the ecological environment at a high level, the steel industry and enterprises should pay more attention to "four aspects".

Zhang Dawei said that the overall consideration of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment this year is to adhere to the "three pollution control measures" and "five precision measures", resolutely oppose the "one-size-fits-all", oppose the imposition of multiple layers. While carrying out air control, the ministry will coordinate the smooth operation of the industry and resource guarantee, and promote the high-quality development of the steel industry with a high level of protection.

"It is suggested that the steel industry and enterprises should deal with the 'three relationships', that is, deal with the relationship between palliative and root causes, long-term and short-term, development and emission reduction, and do the four' more attention '." Zhang Dawei suggested.

First, we will pay more attention to structural and source emission reduction measures. "Under the premise of the current 'two-carbon' goal, we should pay more attention to structural, source and other measures. The future carbon market and carbon tariff will also have a far-reaching impact on the development of the industry, and we should take a long-term view." Zhang suggested that the steel industry should focus on increasing the proportion of short-process steel production in electric furnaces; Increase the proportion of pellets used in blast furnace and reduce the use of sinter; We will improve energy efficiency, increase the proportion of green electricity used, and replace clean energy in coal-fired industrial furnaces. Central and state-owned enterprises should play a leading role and take the lead in demonstration and application of collaborative technological innovation in reducing pollution and carbon.

Second, we will pay more attention to the quality of ultra-low emission transformation. This major project will not only force enterprises to merge and reorganize, upgrade equipment, and improve the overall green and low-carbon development level of the steel industry, but also leverage effective social investment and help stabilize economic growth. "We have stressed many times on various occasions that the ultra-low emission transformation should strive for the 'four true', to achieve the 'four must and four do not', and must stand the test of history." Zhang Dawei said.

Third, pay more attention to achieving "ultra-low" requirements on a sustained and stable basis. "Enterprises that have completed ultra-low emission transformation and publicity should further strengthen the functions of environmental management agencies, enhance the professional technical level of environmental management personnel, and give full play to the supporting role of the organized, unorganized and clean transportation monitoring system for environmental management established in the ultra-low emission transformation process, so as to achieve stable ultra-low emissions. It's not easy to do." Zhang Dawei stressed that the current ultra-low emissions of steel has formed a multi-party supervision mechanism involving the government, enterprises and the public.

He said that in the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will guide local governments to make full use of differentiated policies, increase policy support for stable ultra-low emission enterprises, fail to achieve stable ultra-low emission enterprises and have illegal behaviors to the association to revoke the public notice, adjust the list of "ultra-low" enterprises; On the other hand, we will strengthen the law enforcement inspection of enterprises that have not completed the transformation of ultra-low emission and strictly supervise them.

Fourth, pay more attention to reducing pollution and carbon in transport links. The iron and steel industry is the key industry in the battle against diesel trucks, and the emissions from the transport link account for about 20% of the total emissions of the whole plant. "Next step, enterprises should pay more attention to the optimization of transportation inside and outside the plant, improve the proportion of clean transportation of materials and products outside the plant, medium and long distance transportation by railway or waterway, medium and short distance transportation by pipe gallery or new energy vehicles; The construction of belt, track and roller table transportation system will be implemented in the factory to minimize the amount of automobile transportation in the factory and cancel the secondary transfer of materials in the factory." Zhang Dawei said, has been publicized, to the six car transportation mode of enterprises, also suggested that we further optimize the transportation structure, improve the proportion of clean transportation.