Japan Iron and Steel Federation Clears First Phase of its Challenge to Reduce CO2 Emissions in Steel Making

Among the industry-origin carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Japan, about 45 percent come from steel industry. In order to improve this situation, the Japan Iron and Steel Federation has been conducting the innovative technology development project " COURSE50," which aims to cut CO2 emissions in the steel making process by 30 percent, under the sponsorship of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). The first phase of the project, which started in fiscal 2008, was completed in 2012. The second phase to develop more innovative technologies starts in fiscal 2013.

Existing steel production methods use carbon monoxide (CO) gas to reduce (deoxidize) oxygen contained in iron ore, and in that case, generation of CO2 emissions is inevitable. A new method to use hydrogen instead of CO gas, and this generates H2O instead of CO2. However, there are issues to be overcome regarding this method. One is that the temperature in the furnace decreases with increases in the quantity of hydrogen flowing into the furnace due to the endothermic reaction associated with hydrogen reduction. Another is that iron ore crumbles away as the hydrogen gas is blown into the chamber, and the gas passage may be blocked by the crumbled ore.

After successful experiments to overcome these issues in 2012 using an experimental furnace in Sweden, the project has entered its second phase; building a larger scale experimental furnace in Japan. The Federation plans to collect more technical know-how during the five-year operation of the furnace, which is close to starting operations.

In addition to the new technology using hydrogen reduction, development of a technology to separate and recover CO2 is also included in the COURSE50 project as the core target. The new technologies are expected to be put into practice in 2030, with the efforts of both the public and private sectors.