Low Carbon Economy and Iron and Steel Industry

Despite of natural causes(like volcano,solar activities,etc.),climate warming is also caused by green house gases emitted by applying fossil fuels in the past 250 years since the industrial revolution taking place.Current iron and steel industry is based on carbon-related metallurgical process.Its CO2 emission(hereinafter referred to as "carbon emission" according to international practice) accounts for 5%-6% of the total carbon emission of the world.Since China is in the middle stage of industrialization and urbanization which is characterized by large amount of production and consumption of iron and steel,the carbon emission of iron and steel industry makes up 15% of the China's total carbon emission.The countermeasures of iron and steel industry in many countries before 2020 are energy saving and emission reducing in BF-BOF process and expanding EAF process.Comparing with the international advanced level,the fuel ratio in China's iron and steel industry is 15%-20% lagging behind.Therefore,there are still some spaces for cutting down carbon emission.In the meantime,by applying blast furnace top gas recycle,and injection of coke oven gas after reforming through blast furnace stack to reduce indirectly by H2/CO gas,carbon emission can be further lowered by 10%-20%.By the mid of this century(about the year of 2050) when renewable energy and nuclear power become mainstream energy sources again,it is possible to develop a next generation of iron and steel making—"hydrogen reduction".