Development of technology that can reduce CO ₂ emissions by 50% or more from the steelmaking process

As part of the Green Innovation Fund project, NEDO will launch a "hydrogen utilization project in the steelmaking process" (total budget of 193.5 billion yen) to decarbonize the steel industry, which emits a large amount of CO ₂ in the manufacturing process . Reduce fossil fuel consumption from the entire steelmaking process, including technology to utilize more hydrogen in blast furnaces and hydrogen reduction technology to utilize low-grade iron ore in direct reduction furnaces, and reduce CO ₂ emissions by 2030 by 2030. We aim to develop technology that can reduce the amount by% or more.

About Green Innovation Fund Business

The Government of Japan declared "2050 Carbon Neutral" in October 2020 and set a goal of zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This goal is a significant advancement of traditional government policy, and to achieve it, current efforts such as structural transformation of the energy and industrial sector and innovation through bold investment need to be significantly accelerated. For this reason, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has created a fund totaling 2 trillion yen in the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), a public and private sector, after sharing ambitious and concrete goals. We have launched the Green Innovation Fund project, which continuously supports companies working on management issues from research and development / demonstration to social implementation for 10 years.

Background of this project

This fund project is a priority field for which an action plan was formulated in the Green Growth Strategy , and the policy effect is large, and we will focus on areas that require long-term continuous support with a view to social implementation. As one of them, "utilization of hydrogen in the iron making process" is mentioned. The steel industry, which supplies materials for products that form the basis of society, is facing the challenge of emitting as much as 40% of CO ₂ in the Japanese industrial sector during the manufacturing process . However, the "blast furnace method", which is currently widely used in Japanese steelworks and mainly uses coke (coal) to reduce iron ore to produce steel, has inevitably generated CO ₂ .

Against this background, NEDO has used hydrogen instead of coke to reduce iron ore to reduce CO ₂ emissions, and to separate and recover CO ₂ to produce CO from steelworks. ₂ We have been working on " development of environment-friendly process technology / development of process technology such as hydrogen reduction " with the aim of establishing a technology that reduces emissions by about 30% . As a result, we are already on the verge of establishing a technology that can reduce CO ₂ emissions by 30% in demonstration tests using a test blast furnace (volume 12 m ³ , about 1/400 scale of an actual blast furnace) . However, in order to introduce this technology to domestic steelworks, verification in an actual blast furnace is necessary, and in addition, efforts to further reduce CO ₂ emissions from the blast furnace are indispensable for the realization of carbon neutrality in 2050. On the other hand, as an iron-making method that can suppress CO ₂ emissions more than the blast furnace method, there is a "direct reduction method" that reduces iron ore using natural gas and dissolves it in an electric furnace, etc., but since natural gas is also a fossil fuel, CO ₂ emissions are inevitable. If hydrogen can be used instead of natural gas to reduce iron ore , further reduction of CO ₂ emissions can be expected, but it has not been put into practical use. In addition, since it is more difficult to remove impurities in an electric furnace than in a blast furnace, there are restrictions on raw materials such as the inability to use low-grade iron ore that contains a large amount of impurities. In order to solve these issues and connect them to social implementation, NEDO is based on the R & D / Social Implementation Plan ^{* 4} formulated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry , and this time, as part of the Green Innovation Fund project, "Hydrogen Utilization Project in Steelmaking Process ^{* 5} " We solicited publicly and adopted 4 themes. Development of hydrogen reduction technology using a blast furnace: Research and development content (1) Development of hydrogen reduction technology utilizing on-site hydrogen ● Based on the results of the "development of environment-friendly process technology / development of process technology such as hydrogen reduction" in the test blast furnace, the actual blast furnace (5000m ³ class) will be remodeled and a room temperature hydrogen gas blowing test will be conducted. .. We will verify changes in reaction conditions and CO ₂ reduction effects due to scale-up, and develop technologies for introduction to domestic steelworks. Research and development content (2) Development of low-carbon technology utilizing CO ₂ contained in external hydrogen and blast furnace exhaust gas ● Large-scale hydrogen reduction technology by significantly increasing the amount of hydrogen input , methane production from CO ₂ contained in blast furnace exhaust gas and its utilization as a reducing agent, and utilization of biomass and reduced iron as part of raw materials. Through such measures, we aim to develop technology that reduces CO ₂ emitted from blast furnaces by 50% or more. Specifically, for verification of the basic principle using a test blast furnace and a mathematical model, development of heating equipment for practical use, verification of elemental technologies in a medium-scale test blast furnace (500 m ³ class or higher), and stabilization of operations. We will establish new technologies. Development of direct hydrogen reduction technology that reduces low-grade iron ore with hydrogen alone: Research and development content (1) Development of direct hydrogen reduction technology ● Technology that can reduce CO ₂ emissions from the direct reduction furnace by 50% or more compared to the current blast furnace method by using hydrogen instead of natural gas in the direct reduction method using low-grade iron ore. Aim for the development of. Specifically, after developing elemental technologies in a small-scale test reactor (1/250 to 1/150 scale of the actual reactor), a medium-scale direct reduction reactor (1/25 to 1/25 minutes of the actual reactor). 1 scale) will be manufactured and a verification test will be conducted. Research and development content (2) Development of impurity removal technology for electric furnaces using direct reduced iron ● We will develop technology for removing impurities in electric furnaces using low-grade iron ore, and develop technology for mass production of high-grade steel. Specifically, in order to reduce phosphorus to 0.015% or less and nitrogen to 40 ppm or less in molten steel in an electric furnace, after developing elemental technologies in a small test electric furnace (processing amount of 3 to 10 tons), a large test electric furnace (processing) We will manufacture (amount of about 300 tons) and carry out verification tests.

Japan: Green Innovation Fund Starts Hydrogen Utilization Project in Steelmaking Process