From 15 to 16 February 2023, the 13th Conference for New Vehicles and Materials Concepts, organized by the Institute for Vehicle Concepts at the German Aerospace Center, Held simultaneously in Stuttgart, Germany and online. Fan Tiejun, President of Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute, was invited to attend the meeting. The Roadmap of Low Carbon Development and Transformation of Chinese Steel Industry will also be presented online.

I. Development status of China's iron and steel industry

Since the 13th Five-Year Plan, China's steel industry has exceeded the upper limit target of 150 million tons two years in advance, effectively purifying the market environment, significantly increasing the proportion of high-quality and green production capacity, and significantly improving the operating efficiency of enterprises.

Looking at the development of China's steel industry, since 1996, when the crude steel output exceeded 100 million tons, China's steel has been ranked first in the world for 26 years. In recent years, in terms of variety structure, China has made breakthroughs in the production of a number of key steel varieties, and the quality of steel varieties has been further improved. In terms of process equipment, the process equipment of China's iron and steel industry has maintained the international advanced level on the whole, and new progress has been made in the large-scale and intelligent production equipment of major processes such as iron making, steel making and steel rolling. In terms of merger and reorganization, the merger and reorganization of China's iron and steel industry continues to advance and accelerate the pace, and the industry concentration gradually increases. In terms of green manufacturing, China's iron and steel enterprises have significantly improved their level of green manufacturing. Not only has energy efficiency continued to improve, overall energy consumption per ton of steel decreased year by year, but environmental protection has also improved significantly.

2. Process and trend of ultra-low emission of steel in China

At present, China's steel industry is carrying out the world's largest ultra-low emission transformation of steel. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the National Development and Reform Commission and other five ministries and commissions jointly issued the Opinions on Promoting the implementation of ultra-low emission in the steel Industry. It was proposed that by the end of 2025, the ultra-low emission transformation of steel enterprises in key areas should be basically completed, and more than 80% of the country's production capacity should be completed. Up to now, 255 steel companies with a crude steel capacity of about 700 million tons are carrying out ultra-low emission renovation work.

In the implementation of ultra-low emission transformation standards: compared with foreign steel environmental protection standards, China's steel industry implements the world's most stringent environmental protection emission standards. The whole process has an ultra-low emission limit, which is 33%~83% stricter than the current domestic standard. Compared with the current standards of European and American countries, most of the indicators of China's ultra-low limits are better than similar foreign standards except that the emission concentration of particulates at individual nodes is comparable.

In terms of implementation path of ultra-low emission transformation: the main technical path of ultra-low emission transformation of China's iron and steel industry includes source emission reduction, process control, end-management, unorganized integrated management and control platform, clean transportation, etc.

Iii. Low-carbon transformation of Steel in China

Under the general trend of low-carbon development, it has become a global consensus to seize the historic opportunity of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation to promote the "green recovery" of the post-COVID-19 world economy. The "30·60" dual-carbon target proposed by China is an important strategic decision to balance both the international and domestic situations, and a historic revolution in the production, consumption, technology, economy and energy systems. Compared with the previous two targets, China's new peak target and carbon neutral vision are more ambitious, fully reflecting its determination and confidence in low-carbon development and demonstrating its responsibility as a major country, which has been widely recognized and highly praised by the international community. The Chinese government is working hard to build a "1+N" policy system with clear goals, reasonable division of labor, effective measures and orderly linkages to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. At present, "1", "N" and related supporting policies have been issued, and the implementation plan of China's industrial carbon peak is expected to be released to the public in the near future.

Carbon emissions from China's steel industry account for about 15% of the country's total carbon emissions, making it the largest carbon emitter among 31 manufacturing sectors. As an important field in implementing carbon emission reduction, China's steel industry is duty-bound to develop low-carbon. It faces challenges such as tight time and heavy tasks in low-carbon transition, and needs to deal with issues such as energy and resource endowment and complex carbon emission mechanism.

Aiming at the low-carbon transformation of China's iron and steel industry, the Planning and Research Institute of Metallurgical Industry has studied and proposed the theoretical system of C+4E low-carbon development. Its core idea is: to improve carbon productivity as the core, realize energy saving, improve economic benefits, environmental collaborative governance, to build the formation of iron and steel ecological industry chain. From the specific path analysis, the low-carbon development of China's steel will focus on six aspects: the first is to promote green layout, the second is to save energy and improve energy efficiency, the third is to optimize energy use and process structure, the fourth is to build a circular economy industry chain, the fifth is to apply breakthrough low-carbon technology, and the sixth is to do a good job in institutional construction and policy system support.