Chinese steelmaker HBIS Group has successfully begun manufacturing continuously produced direct reduced iron (DRI) products, as part of the company's efforts to lower carbon emissions.
With a metallization ratio currently at 94%, these DRI products could replace high-quality steel scrap, and feedstock of electric arc furnace-based steelmaking, ‘representing an important milestone for the transition to hydrogen metallurgy from the traditional carbon metallurgy in the steel industry’, the North China-based steel producer said.
Compared with the same scale of traditional blast furnace-based steelmaking, the phase-one hydrogen metallurgy project will reduce emissions of CO2 by 800kt/yr, according to HBIS.
It will also capture around 125 kilograms of CO2 when producing a tonne of DRI, the company added.
HBIS signed an agreement with miner BHP Group Ltd last March to trial carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies, having set a target in 2021 to begin cutting emissions after 2022, aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Source: CNA
