Xingguo Precision Machinery Co., Ltd. of Changli County (hereinafter referred to as Xingguo Casting) has successfully launched its demonstration project for “300,000 m³/day green electricity electrolysis water hydrogen production – hydrogen storage – 450 m³ blast furnace hydrogen-rich smelting”. This marks the entry into the industrial application phase of the new process of replacing carbon with hydrogen in blast furnace injection for low-carbon smelting.
After a period of continuous and stable operation, the project has achieved a pure hydrogen injection volume of 103 cubic meters per ton of iron, with an hourly pure hydrogen injection rate reaching 8,700 cubic meters. The substitution ratio of solid fuel is between 0.36 to 0.5 kg/Nm³, reducing carbon emissions in blast furnace ironmaking by 8% to 11%. The pure oxygen produced during the electrolysis of water for hydrogen production is used for oxygen-enriched blast furnace blowing, significantly reducing overall smelting costs in this phase.
Building on the operational practices from the previous phase, the project has now entered a new stage focusing on matching and optimizing key parameters across all processes of “hydrogen production – hydrogen storage – hydrogen-rich blast furnace smelting”. This phase aims to further increase the amount of hydrogen injected per ton of iron, optimize coordination upstream and downstream, and reduce energy consumption and costs.
Data shows that injecting pure hydrogen into blast furnaces can significantly reduce coal coke consumption and impurity element content in molten iron, laying the foundation for the production of advanced steel materials such as clean low-carbon pig iron and component manufacturing.
Currently, the bottleneck for the industrial promotion and application of hydrogen-rich blast furnace smelting technology lies in the preparation and transportation of large-scale, economically viable, clean, and low-carbon hydrogen. The technical team at Xingguo Casting believes that integrating local resource characteristics, “on-site preparation and on-site utilization” is an effective approach to solving large-scale hydrogen production and storage and transportation issues.
To this end, based on the energy and power resources of Changli County in Qinhuangdao, Xingguo Casting has collaborated with institutions such as Shanghai University, Tongji University, Yuhydro Equipment, Institute 718, and LONGi Hydrogen to conduct collaborative innovation efforts targeting common key technologies and equipment for diversified power supply (including green electricity and off-peak electricity), electrolysis water hydrogen production, hydrogen storage and transportation, and hydrogen-rich blast furnace smelting, along with multi-interface integration.
They have developed and adopted China’s largest single-unit alkaline water electrolysis hydrogen production equipment (with a capacity of 3000 Nm³/h per cell) and a comprehensive safety risk prevention and control system for the entire process chain. By utilizing diverse power sources, energy storage, and hydrogen storage, they have achieved stable supply of clean, low-carbon hydrogen, providing practical examples for addressing the challenges of mutual coupling between the hydrogen energy and steel industries.
