It was reported that China Baowu Group, the world’s largest steel producer, has launched a new small-sized steel project which can produce steel products with nearzero carbon emissions. In mid-March, a ground-breaking ceremony was held in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
The project will be installed at Bazhou Steel, located in Hejing County, approximately 220 km from Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang. With a total investment of RMB2.0 billion (US$289.9 million), the project is designed to produce 1.0 Mt/a of crude steel and 0.5 Mt/a of thin strip continuous casting and rolling production line.
As the region is mainly a desert area with strong sunlight, the new project will be powered by renewable energy, particularly solar power. Bazhou Steel will build a captive 300 MW solar power plant and relevant transmission and storage for the electricity generated from solar panels, which can supply a majority of the electricity required by the new steel plant.
Meanwhile, Bazhou Steel will plant a forest to generate carbon credits to offset the emissions of the outsourced coal-fired electricity. Upon completion of the project, it will become China’s first zero-carbon steel plant.
The project was first announced during Baowu Group’s Low Carbon Metallurgy Innovation Forum held in November 2021. Baowu Group signed an agreement with the local government in February 2022 with an aim to kick off construction in the second half of 2022 and commence production at the end of 2023. However, the project was delayed due to COVID measures.
Baowu Group’s subsidiary Bayi Steel, located in Urumqi, is a core R&D asset of Baowu’s low-carbon programme. A closed 450-m3 blast furnace has been renovated to test Baowu’s Hydrogen-enriched Carbon Recycling Oxygenate Furnace (HyCROF) technology.
In March 2023, the blast furnace achieved the best-ever productivity performance. Meanwhile, Bayi Steel is renovating another 2500-m3 blast furnace to scale up the HyCROF technology. Once completed in October 2023, it will become China’s first commercial-scale blast furnace with a significant reduction in carbon emissions.
---- World Steel Association
