In December 2020, the Central Economic Work Conference explicitly called for "doing a good job of carbon peak, carbon neutral work" as one of the key tasks in 2021, and proposed that we should grasp the development of the action plan for carbon emissions peak before 2030, and support the conditions of the first place to reach the peak. Focusing on the target nodes of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, the 2021 National Industry and Information Technology Work Conference pointed out that the iron and steel industry, as a highly energy-intensive industry, should resolutely compress crude steel production to ensure a year-on-year decline in crude steel production. As a key means for the steel industry to fulfill the carbon peak and carbon neutral, hydrometallurgy technology has become an important hand in the green and low-carbon development of steel smelting.
New technology to help low carbon emissions
Carbon emissions in the steel production process mainly come from three processes: one is to reduce iron ore into pig iron; the second is to further decarbonize pig iron to make crude steel; and the third is to process the crude steel into molding to obtain steel products. The first step of the reduction process generates up to 90% of the carbon emissions of the entire steel production process. Therefore, reducing carbon emissions from the reduction process is crucial for the low-carbon sustainable development of the steel industry. In hydrometallurgy, the ironmaking process, which originally relied exclusively on carbon reduction, employs hydrogen to replace carbon as the reductant, thereby greatly reducing the consumption of carbon reductant and the emission of pollutants such as carbon dioxide.
According to the three aspects of hydrogen production, steelmaking utilization and carbon reduction support, hydrogen metallurgy technology focuses on hydrogen production technology. The process of hydrogen production is the conversion of primary energy into secondary energy, and it also covers hydrogen storage and hydrogen transportation equipment and technology, taking into account the actual production and application aspects. Iron and steel enterprises at home and abroad have carried out research and development of various hydrogen production methods, such as coal-based method, gas-based method, electrolysis method, nuclear energy hydrogen production, etc. In comparison, China's iron and steel enterprises have not carried out research and development of hydrogen production technology. In comparison, China's iron and steel enterprises are not lagging behind. At present, the process of hydrogen production by electrolysis of water is still not perfect, fewer patent applications, and has not formed protection barriers, while electrolysis of water brings the least pollution, reduces carbon emissions, and realizes the greatest role of carbon neutrality, which has the significance of sustainable development. Swedish Iron and Steel Company, Germany Siemens Austrian Steel Union, Italy Tenone Group, the United States Middlesex Technology Corporation and many other European and American companies, have carried out electrolysis hydrogen green hydrogen project. Combined with China's resource conditions and technical conditions, the domestic photovoltaic, wind power and other clean energy to replace fossil energy generation has begun to take shape, the domestic iron and steel enterprises are fully equipped to carry out the "zero-emission power generation + electricity hydrogen" of the Green Hydrogen Project capacity.
In the utilization of steelmaking, that is, in the use of hydrogen to reduce iron production stage, more consideration should be given to how to improve the efficiency of hydrogen reduction and iron steelmaking productivity, so as to achieve further energy saving and emission reduction effects. Under the current raw material system and process conditions, various iron and steel enterprises have tried different combinations of reductant compositions such as gas mixture and gas-coal mixture, as well as adjusting and controlling the parameters of the reduction process to achieve a breakthrough in the effect of iron reduction. The brightest prospect is that the recycling of secondary resources has become a definite R&D direction and development opportunity in the field of hydrometallurgy-related technologies. As China's iron and steel industry chain is relatively perfect, the recycling of "three wastes" resources has a super large-scale market and relevant policy support, which enables the iron and steel enterprises to utilize the secondary resources in hydrometallurgy process. Improve the comprehensive productivity of the production line and the utilization rate of resources, through the recycling of waste gas, waste water and waste materials, not only to achieve energy saving and emission reduction, but also to reduce production costs and improve product gross margins. Moreover, with the systematic upgrade of the core components of the industrial chain and the development of new-generation information technology such as 5G, big data, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, etc., steel companies should grasp the opportunity of applying information technology in the field of hydrometallurgy-related technology, utilize the new computer control system and methods to rationally deploy the amount of hydrogen, increase the efficiency of the reduction reaction, further reduce the energy consumption, and improve the yield and product quality.
In terms of carbon reduction support, with the gradual implementation of carbon neutral targets, in addition to R&D investment in hydrogen production and steelmaking processes, steel companies also need to improve related support equipment and ancillary technologies to ensure the safety of hydrogen production, use, and storage, eliminate backward-capacity production lines, and optimize the deployment of enterprise resources. As the national level of high energy consumption and low value-added steel products will be normalized production reduction, is bound to stimulate the market price of steel products, at the same time, as carbon emissions have gradually become an important factor in the production costs of iron and steel enterprises, enterprises should actively take advantage of the development trend, vigorously carry out technological research and development, to expand the value of intellectual property rights, such as patents and other space for the utilization of intellectual property rights and financing channels, the use of carbon trading to carry out mergers and acquisitions
"Headline companies" focus on "hydrogen" patents
The costs incurred by companies investing in R&D before the formation of an intangible asset are reported as R&D expenses in the annual report, and when the R&D project meets the requirements for an intangible asset, it is reported as an expense. When an R&D project meets the conditions for recognition as an intangible asset, it will be included in the intangible asset line of the statement. Therefore, it is possible to compare the R&D expenses and intangible assets reported by steel companies, as well as the R&D capabilities and progress of hydrogen metallurgy technology. The following table lists some operating data and patent applications of some listed domestic steel companies, in which the number of patent applications is based on publicly available data from January 1, 2001 to March 31, 2021, and the R&D expenses and intangible assets in the table are based on the data in the 2019 annual report, taking into account that the 2020 annual reports of some companies have not yet been published and the impact of the 2020 epidemic.
Baosteel, which is part of the Baowu Group, has far more intangible assets and R&D strength than any other company due to its absolute strength in the industry, and also has the most hydrometallurgical patent applications. HISCO is the steel company with the highest ratio of R&D expenses to intangible assets, and although its current patent applications are not outstanding, combined with the media reports of its hydrogen metallurgy cooperation project with Italy's Tenone Group, and its hydrogen energy technology and industry innovation center with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the General Iron and Steel Research Institute, and Northeastern University, it can be expected that HISCO will focus on low-carbon development and hydrogen energy development and utilization for a series of process changes and industrial chain layout. A series of process changes and industry chain layout.