"Gradually realize the smooth transition from low proportion scrap to high proportion scrap to whole scrap, and finally achieve the clean steel smelting based on the high quality recycling of all scrap, and the use of scrap to make good steel."

"Into the whole scrap era, who master the scrap resources, who will master the future."

"The solution to the scrap problem must start now."

"To build the whole life cycle identification analysis system of products, and realize the high quality recycling of scrap steel in the whole industrial chain."

"We must explore a road with Chinese characteristics!"

...

On April 25, the Chinese Academy of Engineering 2023 strategic research and consultation key project -- "Research on the Green and high-quality Development Strategy of China's Iron and Steel Industry under the Background of 'Double carbon'" launch meeting, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Professor of Northeastern University Wang Guodong on the high-quality recycling of steel waste resources of the technical program and forward-looking views "Jing" four, Received the response of multiple representatives of the scene. On the sidelines of the conference, China Metallurgical News reporter had an exclusive interview with Wang Guodong, who had in-depth exchanges on the topics of planning and design, key strategies, organization and implementation of the project.

Forming suggestions on the utilization of scrap steel resources with Chinese characteristics, and creating conditions for implementation

"Our project goal is to carry out a series of research on the recycling of waste steel, form a scientific and rational utilization of waste steel resources with Chinese characteristics, report to the country, and win relevant policy support from governments at all levels. The core of our research is how to achieve the goal, what measures and policies the country should take, and how to achieve efficient coordination and unified management of the whole industry chain." Wang Guodong told China Metallurgical News that the project has carried out research for more than a year in the early stage, and the preliminary plan is to use half a year to sort out the preliminary research results, while grasping the new market situation, to form a more scientific and complete advisory report to the national government.

Although the goal is to make suggestions, Wang clearly has higher aspirations and expectations. "In the process of developing the recommendations, we will create conditions to facilitate their implementation. We invited the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAS), the Industrial Internet Research Institute and Siasun Robotics Research Institute to participate in the project, in order to form a holistic design thinking, to link all industries in the entire industrial chain, and to organize the coordination and orderly linkage of all links after the implementation of national policies."

Wang Guodong revealed that the current Xingcheng special steel in the study of layout related matters. "There are industry model enterprises in the ground, our confidence is enough. If we can really make the project perfect landing, wait until the amount of steel scrap exceeds the demand for steel, equivalent to enter the era of total scrap steel. At that time, whoever controls the scrap resources will control the future." Wang Guodong said with emotion.

The conventional wisdom, he noted, is that international development practices require scrap steel to be used only for low-end steel, and that 20 percent of "blast-converter" capacity must be reserved for high-end products. This means that there is no escape from the carbon emissions of the blast-converter process. In response, he points out that these difficulties are both challenges and opportunities. In the next few decades, we should seize the opportunity, face the challenges, self-reliance, independent innovation, out of our Chinese characteristics of scrap recycling resources to the road. It is necessary to strengthen the research and development of low-carbon and energy-saving smelting and refining process and equipment under the condition of high proportion of scrap steel, gradually realize the smooth transition from low proportion of scrap steel to high proportion of scrap steel to total scrap steel, and finally realize the clean steel smelting based on high quality recycling of total scrap steel, get rid of the "blast-converter" production process, and get rid of the dependence on iron ore import. Make use of the waste steel resources to smelt all kinds of steel to meet the needs of the country.

This will be a difficult, complex process, but it is of great significance to strengthen the protection of environment and resources and realize the "double carbon" goal, to solve the problem of scrap steel must start from now. In the process, whether it is the steel industry, downstream manufacturing, or steel scrap recycling industry, it will correspondingly increase profits and create wealth for the country, he added.

"Today's meeting is both a launch meeting and a research meeting. Representatives of associations and enterprises from all industries in the industrial chain gathered together to make suggestions and suggestions on the theme of green, low-carbon and high-quality development. They had many words in mind. The purpose of making the roster, recording contact information and taking group photos is to create opportunities for everyone to contact and cooperate with each other, and to facilitate the cross-integration and win-win results of enterprises in various industries of the industrial chain. We will further discuss the issues raised at the meeting and some key points that we have not reached consensus on, develop a collaborative mechanism, and finally explore a path with Chinese characteristics!" Wang Guodong resolute vision, strong words.

The significance of identity parsing technology lies in the data flow based on interconnection

As an important part of the project and the key technology of the future industrial Internet, the sign analysis technology with strong sense of science and technology has aroused everyone's attention and curiosity.

"The sign-parsing technology, in a nutshell, is just like the QR code we use everyday. Scan the QR code attached to the steel product, and all the parameters are clear at a glance, including how the steel is made, how the continuous casting is cast, how the steel is rolled, the grade of the product, the brand, the composition of the product, what is the emission of the product, are recorded." "Take a roll of steel plate, send it to an auto parts factory to be made into parts, attach a QR code to it, and the information will follow the part," Wang told China Metallurgical News. Parts are made into parts, the two-dimensional code of each part together, become the two-dimensional code of parts; The parts are reassembled into cars. Each part of the car, each part of the car, has its own QR code, all the product information used to make the car. That way, wherever the product is distributed, wherever the information is available. "We can classify these products accurately and carefully by just tracking the QR code."

He also stressed the need to ensure the uniformity of QR codes across the industry chain. "You can't represent the same meaning here, to other links are different, must be unified." Wang Guodong introduced, "So we invite information and Communication Institute, China Industrial Internet Research Institute to participate in, by the information and Communication Institute as the leading unit of two-dimensional code, to help us on the industrial chain of various industries, especially the iron and steel industry identification analysis system to establish. At that time, producers of all links in the industrial chain will not only consider the impact of their production processes on the environment and resources, but also take comprehensive consideration from the perspective of the whole life cycle of the product and be responsible for the whole life cycle of the product, which is a manifestation of social progress."

"The value of identification does not lie in the identification itself, but in the data information connected behind the identification, in the construction of connectivity channels, in the data flow based on connectivity, in the digital value of data flow, in the future more open and flexible production system and value network." This is how Wang sees the significance of sign resolution technology. He pointed out that the identification analysis technology is the core content of the implementation Plan of the Extended Producer Responsibility System issued by the state in 2016 (extending the resource and environmental responsibility of producers for their products from the production link to the whole life cycle of product design, circulation and consumption, recycling and waste disposal). It is also the premise and foundation for accurate connection between the global supply chain system and enterprise production system, product lifecycle management and intelligent services. It will provide strong support for data sharing and traceability across the whole industrial chain and scenes, and promote supply-side structural reform and the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry.

"Regarding the sign parsing technology and system, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has promoted it in several industries, among which the home appliance industry is related to the steel industry. The auto industry is also laying out." "There are now some steel companies that have been listed as secondary nodes of the QR code [identification]," Mr Guodong said. In the context of the normal prevention and control of the novel coronavirus, we have used QR codes to achieve "one code pass" across the country and even around the world. The establishment of the identification analysis system in industrial production is equivalent to giving the machine and items in industrial production a unique "identity card", to achieve unique positioning and information query. With it, we can open up the "information island" between enterprise products, machines, workshops, factories and even industries, complete industrial big data convergence, realize data sharing among information systems, and carry out data mining and analysis application. Iron and steel materials in its full life cycle will experience many different fields, departments, scenes, with the two-dimensional code this' ID ', through the data analysis can accurately identify it, analyze it, really reflect the value of the data."

At present, there is an urgent need to establish a collaboration platform for the whole industry chain

"Currently, what are the challenges facing the country in promoting the management, recycling and reuse of waste steel resources?" In the face of "China Metallurgical News" reporter this problem, Wang Guodong from scrap recycling itself and the whole industrial chain coordination of two aspects of analysis, and put forward the solution.

First, the composition of scrap steel is complex, and it is difficult to recover it efficiently.

"There are nearly 10 million people employed in the industry, and the proportion of social scrap steel reached 50%~60%, the composition is complex, wide variety, one by one to scan the two-dimensional code, obviously unrealistic. What to do?" "We can divide scrap into two categories: social scrap and high-end scrap. For the social scrap steel, to carry out sorting, remove a variety of harmful substances, the remaining part is mainly carbon steel. The scrap steel after sorting is pressed into large pieces under the whole process monitoring of the camera, and the two-dimensional code technology is used for identification to trace the responsibility and realize efficient management. From the perspective of further, long-term development, we can also adjust the composition of scrap steel in the smelting process, through clean smelting, so that low-end scrap gradually to high-end development."

"For high-end scrap steel, that is, high-quality scrap steel with 'blast furnace - converter' process 'origin', through digital, intelligent technology for reasonable classification, directional recovery and recycling. For example, panels for cars, we went to a lot of trouble, spent resources and energy, to produce them. When it is scrapped, if it is mixed with other waste products, it will all become low-end scrap steel; However, if reasonable classification and directional recovery are realized, the high-end value can be maintained and recycling can be realized by directly recycling it into refining furnace after melting. Wouldn't that save a lot of cost and energy?" Wang Guodong said.

Second, the recycling of scrap steel has not yet realized the standardized and intensive operation of the whole industrial chain.

"To achieve efficient recycling, processing, circulation and utilization of scrap in the whole industry chain, it is very important to establish a common standard system. For example, it is relatively easy for steel mills to establish connections with manufacturers, but it is very difficult to achieve green low-carbon production and scientific and standardized management of the whole industrial chain of steel production plants, manufacturers, downstream users and scrap enterprises, which requires support from national policies, as well as active actions at the industry level and the whole industrial chain level. Especially the steel mill, which is the source and destination of scrap steel, is in the center of scrap resource recycling system, should take the initiative to explore the operation mechanism and management mode of the industrial chain scrap recycling system, to ensure that all links in this process have benefits, enthusiasm and driving force."

"The main crux of the current problems lies in the high dispersion of scrap processing and recycling industry and the lack of a collaborative platform of the whole industrial chain." Wang Guodong said a change, "So we must establish such a platform, the upstream and downstream play good coordination, realize the effective use of scrap steel 'four all' and 'four modernization', that is, for the future scrap era, from the steel material of the whole life cycle, the whole production process, the whole industrial chain coordination, to realize the management, recycling and reuse of scrap resources, Strengthen the digitalization, information and identification of the whole process production management, as well as the mechanization of high-quality scrap dismantling and recycling, industrial restructuring and business model innovation."

"Will cost be a challenge?" "China Metallurgical News" reporter asked. "The project will generate very substantial economic and environmental benefits that far outweigh its costs." Wang Guodong revealed that the current special steel plant through the high-end scrap selection of optimal harvest of higher benefits. He further explained that the cost of adding the alloy is high for special steel mills, but if the best use of high-end scrap is realized, "corner scrap" can be turned into "real money." At the same time, as a source of "corner waste", machinery factories can also use high-end scrap in exchange for a certain income.

"In addition, now there are international requirements on carbon footprint, the construction of the whole life cycle of the product identification analysis system, the realization of the whole industrial chain scrap high-quality recycling, will mean that our products can make great strides to export, towards a broader market." Wang Guodong's eyes glowed. As far as the eye can see, a green and low-carbon blueprint for all scrap steel smelting seems to be slowly rolling out.