Recently, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Hebei Bishi Group, Inner Mongolia (Naiman) Jing'an Nonferrous Metal Materials Co., Ltd., has obtained approval for the green hydrogen-2 million mt green electric furnace zero carbon short process casting project. According to public information, the project is planned to be located in Naiman Banner, Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia. The construction period is scheduled from October 2023 to September 2025, with a total investment of approximately 5 billion yuan. The project covers an area of 2.2 million square meters and includes the construction of a 72,000 Nm3/h (90,000 Nm3/h installed capacity) green electric water electrolysis hydrogen production facility, a 2 million mt EAF +LF short process casting facility (including casting heating, forging, and heat treatment), and the construction of 2× 500,000-mt green hydrogen vertical reduction furnaces for iron production, as well as 50,000 mt of high-purity/ultra-pure iron production, atomization, and related supporting infrastructure.
In May of this year, HBZX High Tech, a subsidiary of HBIS Group, put into operation an annual output of 600,000 mt of ENERGIRON® ZR zero-reforming DRI equipment. It is the world's first steel company to use mixed raw materials gas with over 60% hydrogen in the industrial base to produce DRI. With an emission of as low as 250 kg of carbon dioxide per mt of reduced iron produced, HBZX High Tech will become the lowest carbon industrial direct reduction plant in the world. In addition, carbon dioxide can be selectively recovered through the decarbonization device in the ENERGIRON® ZR zero-reforming technology process scheme, and some of it will be reused in downstream processes for carbon capture utilization and storage. Therefore, the final net emissions per mt of reduced iron can be reduced to 125 kg of carbon dioxide.
Besides HBZX High Tech, Baosteel Zhanjiang's DRI project is also under construction with a capacity of 1 million mt, and it is expected to be put into operation by the end of 2023 or 2024.
Currently, there are two DRI projects that have been put into operation in China, namely China Shanxi TaiHang Mining, which uses CSDRI technology, and HBZX High Tech, which uses ENERGIRON® ZR technology. In addition, there are 10 projects under construction in China. It is estimated that by 2030, China's direct reduction iron production capacity using hydrogen-based vertical furnaces will exceed 10 million mt. The expansion of this new capacity is not only supported by policies, but also forward-looking considerations on how steel companies can maintain their competitive advantage after the future implementation of carbon taxes.
