The following article is from China Metallurgical News, the author is China Metallurgical News

China Metallurgical News.

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On December 9, 2022, the China Iron and Steel Association responded to the national call and unified deployment to officially launch the extreme energy efficiency project and listed it as one of the three major projects in the steel industry.

It has been more than a year now. How effective is the implementation of this project? How to further improve energy efficiency in the future? From March 21 to March 22, at the "Energy Saving Services Entering Enterprises" and the 2024 Steel Industry Energy Efficiency Improvement Seminar held in Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province, the guests at the meeting conducted in-depth exchanges on related issues.

Key steel enterprises are internationally leading in comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel

Last year, the "Work Plan for Stabilizing Growth of the Steel Industry" issued by seven departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposed to support the "extreme energy efficiency" transformation project; the 2024 "Government Work Report" revisited the energy consumption target and clarified that "energy consumption per unit of GDP will be reduced by 2.5%." It can be seen that on the road of implementing the spirit of the central government, the requirements of ministries and commissions, and complying with the green, low-carbon and high-quality development of the industry, the steel industry has achieved early planning and early action.

"Over the past year, the ultimate energy efficiency project in the steel industry has brought considerable energy conservation and carbon reduction." This view of Feng Chao, deputy secretary-general of the Steel Association, was recognized by the guests present.

Ding Zhijun, deputy director of the Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out that in 2023, the comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel by key steel enterprises will reach 558 kilograms of standard coal, a decrease of 7.4% from 2012, ranking at the international leading level. He believes that "the most advanced steel companies are in China, and the cleanest steel companies are also in China" should become the consensus of the international community.

Zhang Yongjie, director of the Steel Association, said that after the launch of the energy efficiency benchmarking data filling system for key processes in the steel industry, 58 companies have completed the filling, involving 440 million tons of production capacity. According to preliminary estimates, in 2023, the energy consumption of relevant blast furnaces will decrease by 0.47% year-on-year, and the energy consumption of converters will decrease by 7.97% year-on-year. "The total energy consumption of this 440 million tons of production capacity is equivalent to 1.5 million tons of standard coal. If the entire industry improves energy efficiency at this rate, the energy consumption of standard coal can be reduced by 3.5 million tons per year." He calculated.

At the same time, the "China Steel Industry Green and Low-Carbon Development Report (2023)"(hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released at the meeting shows that since the launch of the Extreme Energy Efficiency Project, steel companies have established an Extreme Energy Efficiency Improvement Leading Group to publish or compile Extreme Energy Efficiency Improvement Plans, forming their own technology lists, and constantly trying revolutionary energy-saving technology innovation demonstration projects, etc., have achieved remarkable results. For example, Jianlong Group released the "Jianlong Group Power Saving Technology List", which systematically screened 66 advanced and practical power saving technology cases in the industry from three directions: management power saving, process power saving and equipment power saving. The electricity consumption index per ton of steel was reduced by 5% year-on-year; Shougang shares promoted and applied mature and advanced energy-saving technologies, and coke oven, blast furnace and converter processes all reached benchmark values before 2023; Baosteel Co., Ltd. promotes energy-saving projects in a "multi-planning, rapid implementation, and stable operation" approach. In 2023, the comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel will be reduced by more than 10 kilograms of standard coal.

As a company on the list of "Typical Application Scenarios and Cases of Industrial Green Microgrids in 2023", Zang Xuesong, deputy general manager of Zhongtian Nantong, shared his own green microgrid application situation at the meeting. According to reports, in 2023, the photovoltaic power generation capacity of Zhongtian Nantong microgrid will reach 77 million kilowatt-hours, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 43921 tons; the annual power generation capacity of residual heat and pressure will be approximately 3.8 million kilowatt-hours, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 2167520 tons. After the Zhongtian Nantong microgrid is put into operation, economic benefits can be achieved by about 10 million yuan per year. "The operation of the microgrid effectively solves the contradiction between the unbalanced supply and demand space of the power system, and achieves ultra-short-term prediction of the power load of enterprises at the gateway, with first-class economic and environmental benefits." Zang Xuesong said.

Adhere to the combination of national governance and industry self-discipline

The "14th Five-Year Plan for Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Comprehensive Work Plan" requires that by 2025, through the implementation of energy conservation and carbon reduction actions, the proportion of key industries such as steel, electrolytic aluminum, and cement reaching the energy efficiency benchmark level will exceed 30%. Currently, the steel industry is in a new round of in-depth adjustment, and there is still a gap between this goal. Promoting extreme energy efficiency is also facing many challenges and problems, mainly in the following aspects:

The first is at the macro level. The "14th Five-Year Plan" target for energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) is a cumulative reduction of 13.5%. In the first two years of the "14th Five-Year Plan", the energy consumption per unit of added value of China's industrial industry dropped by 6.9%. However, due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the tasks in 2024 and 2025 are arduous.

The second is the industry level. Affected by factors such as declining steel demand in 2023, a decrease in overall capacity utilization, and an increase in the proportion of high-end products that are more energy-consuming, the comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel has increased slightly year-on-year. In particular, the industry has called for no "one size fits all" energy consumption for special steel products.

The third is at the enterprise level. Problems such as unreasonable process structure, unbalanced level of green development, difficulty in innovation in energy-saving technologies, and need to strengthen awareness of energy-saving in refined systems are common; some steel companies report poor profitability and pressure on capital investment needed to undertake extreme energy efficiency work.

2024 is a critical year for achieving the goals of the "14th Five-Year Plan". Under the situation that the energy conservation goal has been re-entered into the "Government Work Report", the steel industry has greater pressure on energy conservation and carbon reduction.