Energy 35 (2010) 4356–4360

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Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Current situation of energy consumption and measures taken for energy saving in
the iron and steel industry in China
Z.C. Guo a, *, Z.X. Fu b
a
Laboratory of Ecologic and Recycle Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People’s Republic of China
b
State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex System, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, People’s Republic of China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A survey of the key issues associated with the development in the Chinese iron and steel industry and
Received 30 May 2007 current situations of energy consumption are described in this paper. The apparent production of crude
Received in revised form steel in China expanded to 418.78 million tonnes in 2006, which was about 34% share of the world steel
29 July 2008
production. The iron and steel industry in China is still one of the major high energy consumption and
Accepted 4 April 2009
Available online 17 May 2009
high pollution industries, which accounts for the consumption of about 15.2% of the national total
energy, and generation of 14% of the national total wastewater and waste gas and 6% of the total solid
waste materials. The average energy consumption per unit of steel is about 20% higher than that of other
Keywords:
Iron and steel industry advanced countries due to its low energy utilization efficiency. However, the energy efficiency of the iron
Energy consumption and steel industry in China has made significant improvement in the past few years and significant
Energy saving energy savings will be achieved in the future by optimizing end-use energy utilization. Finally, some
measures for the industry in terms of the economic policy of China’s 11th five-year plan are also
presented.
Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction large-scale, modern blast furnaces, and casting and rolling facilities.
Iron making may take place either through the blast furnace
The steel industry has for long played an important role in the process or by direct reduction and the subsequent transformation
development of China’s economy. Over the past decades, China’s of iron into steel may be carried out either in an oxygen-blown
steel industry has grown rapidly, overtaken Japan, and become the converter or in an electric arc furnace.
world’s largest steel producer in 1996. In 2006, China’s production With improvement of the overall technical level in the steel
of crude steel amounted to 418.78 million tonnes (Mt) [1] and, industry, the production of iron and steel has greatly expanded in
continued to remain first in rank. The share of output of crude steel the past decade, as shown in Fig. 1 [1–4]. The apparent production
of about 335.17 Mt of the key producers accounted for 80% of the of crude steel in China grew from 95 million tonnes in 1995 to
aggregate national production and 83.61 Mt of local producers for 418.78 million tonnes in 2006, which is about 4.5 times that in 1995
20% [2]. In this paper, these key producers are the main subjects of and more than three times that in 2000 [3]. As a result, China’s
our study. share of world steel production leaped from 13% in 1995 to 34% in
Despite these achievements, China remains a steel producer 2006. This growth is expected to be sustained over the next few
whose energy efficiency is the lowest among the major steel- years due to the continued growth in domestic demand.
producing countries, although the overall technical level of its As is well known, the iron and steel industry is the industry with
industry has been greatly improved in line with the developments the largest energy consumption in the world. Having become the
in science and technology. One typical example is the rapid adop- world’s largest steel producer since 1996 China’s steel industry has
tion of continuous casting technology. The share of continuous grown rapidly following huge growth in domestic demand. This
casting output has increased from about 30% of all steel produced in increase is consistent with the trend in the increase in its energy
1992 to 95.8% in 2004. In the meantime, many large firms replaced consumption.
aging blast furnaces, open-hearth furnaces, and ingot casters with Iron and steel production consumes large quantities of energy,
especially in developing countries and countries with economies in
transition where outdated and inefficient technologies are often
* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: þ86 010 62558489. still used. Steel production in developing countries has grown at an
E-mail address: [email protected] (Z.C. Guo). average annual rate of 6.6% in recent years [5] and is expected to

0360-5442/$ – see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.energy.2009.04.008
 Z.C. Guo, Z.X. Fu / Energy 35 (2010) 4356–4360 4357

500 40
Power 26.4%
450 Crude steel production of China 35
Crude steel production (Mt)

400 Share of the world

Share of the world (%)

30
350
300 25

250 20
200 15 Oil 3.2%
150 Coal 69.9% Natural gas 0.5%
10
100
Fig. 2. Energy consumption mix of the steel industry of China in 2004.
50 5

0 0
unit of production and is unlikely to change greatly in the near
96

98

99

00

01

02

03

04

05

06
95

97
19

19

19

20

20

20

20

20

20

20
19

19

future.
Year
Fig. 1. Crude steel production of China and share of the world from 1995 to 2006. 3. Energy consumption situation in the steel industry

The key iron and steel producers in China play an important role
continue to grow at similar levels due to the current low per capita in its manufacture of steel and in the consumption of energy. In
steel consumption levels in these countries. In industrialized 2003, China’s 10 largest steel firms produced more than a third of
countries, steel consumption averages over 425 kg/capita, whereas China’s steel output, with the top four firms producing more than
even key steel-producing developing countries have extremely low 20% [6]. This implies that many advanced technologies have earlier
average per capita consumption levels of 80 kg/capita (in 1995). existed in China’s steel industry, but the current industry’s
Most of China’s steel industry developed through a system of concentration limits the application of these technologies lowering
state-owned ‘enterprises’, in which an entire community was energy efficiency in general [7]. Therefore, the iron and steel
devoted to the production of steel. As a result, the data collected industry remains one of the highest energy consumers and pollu-
relating to the energy consumed to produce steel in China also tion producers accounting for about 15.2% of the national total
contain energy used at the enterprise level for a variety of other energy consumption, 14% of the national total wastewater and
functional departments, both directly and indirectly related to the waste gas, and 6% of the total solid waste materials generated.
production of steel. In addition, part of China’s steel is produced by Fig. 3 shows the variations in energy consumption of the key
small steel mills that do not report energy consumption data to enterprises in China from 1995 to 2006 [3,8–10]. The total energy
government statistical sources. It is important to differentiate these consumption of the iron and steel industry rose rapidly along with
data so that the consumption values of China’s energy can be fairly rising steel production in the past decades. In the year 2004, the
evaluated, especially when we compare the energy consumption total steel production of China was 274.7 Mt, rising by 107.7%
and energy intensity of the Chinese steel industry to those of other compared to 2000 and by 184.2% compared to 1995 [10]. The total
countries or to particular ‘best practice’ examples. We note that energy consumption of the key enterprises in China soared from
even with these adjustments, it is possible that the data still include 96.30 Mtce in 2000 to 197.79 Mtce in 2006, which was over twice
inaccuracies due to the issues of statistical reports. that for 2000. However, the rising trend in energy consumption
The objective of this paper is to present a survey of some of the weakened in 2006, when it was 8.8% lower than that of the year
key issues associated with the development in the Chinese steel before.
industry, and describes the status of its energy consumption. The With the application of many new technologies and equipment,
differences in steel consumption in major processes and China’s the index of energy consumption per tonne of steel decreased
role in the scene of the international steel industry are analyzed, remarkably in the past decades. The overall energy consumption
and the outlook and the measures to be instituted for China’s iron
and steel industry are also presented in the paper. It is important for
the world to better understand China’s energy consumption and
Energy consumption per ton steel (kgce/t)

the use of raw materials and for China to better understand the 1600 300
Comprehensive energy consumption per ton steel
Total energy consumption (Mtce)

approaches that have been developed or are being developed in Comparable energy consumption per ton steel
other countries for more efficient use of energy and raw materials. 1400 250
Total energy consumption
The authors hope this paper contributes to the improved under-
standing of these aspects of the industry. 1200 200

1000 150
2. Energy consumption structure of the iron and steel
industry in China
800 100

It is well known that electricity production in China mainly

depends on coal, and coal is also the most important fuel used in 600 50
China’s iron and steel industry. In 2004, the energy consumption
mix of the Chinese steel industry consisted of 69.90% coal, 26.40% 400 0
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006
electricity, 3.2% fuel oil, and 0.5% natural gas, as shown in Fig. 2 [4].
Coal is not only the most widely used fuel but is also as necessary as Year
raw material in the iron and steel industry as most of the rest is Fig. 3. Variation of energy consumption of the key enterprises in China from
electricity. Such a fuel structure raises the energy consumption per 1995 to 2006.
4358 Z.C. Guo, Z.X. Fu / Energy 35 (2010) 4356–4360

Average process energy consumption (kgce/t)

30
Water consumption per ton steel (m3/t)

600
Coking Sintering
25 Blast furnace Converter furnace
Electric furnace Steel rolling
20 500

15

300
10

200
5

100
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
0
Year

95

96

97

98

99

00

01

02

03

04

05
20
19

19

19

19

19

20

20

20

20

20
Fig. 4. Fresh water consumption per tonne of steel from 2000 to 2005.
Year
Fig. 5. Variation of energy consumption of several main processes in the steel industry
for China’s large and medium producers in 2005 was 741 kgce per in 1995–2005.
tonne of steel, which was 20.3% lower than that in 2000 of 930 kgce
per tonne. In 2006, the overall energy consumption per tonne of
energy consumption of the iron making system accounted for about
steel continued to decrease to 645 kgce per tonne of steel. The
70% of the total process energy consumption, including 39% for the
comparable energy consumption also took on a decreasing trend.
blast furnace, 11.9% for coking, 3.51% for balling and 5.55% for sin-
The variations in fresh water consumption per tonne of steel
tering. The remaining processes accounted for a small part of about
from 2000 to 2006 are shown in Fig. 4 [3,10]. The total quantity of
30%, which is comprised of 12.5% for power, 7.77% for rolling steel,
fresh water used per tonne of steel in 2006 was 6.56 m3, which is
17.5% for the electric furnace, and 2.22% for the converter furnace.
14.9% lower than that in 2005. Other data comparing energy saving,
This means that the iron making system is a key part of any energy
water saving, and environmental protection between 2000 and
conservation effort in the steel industry.
2005 are presented in Table 1 [10]. It can be seen that the energy
efficiency of China’s iron and steel industry has made significant
5. Comparisons of energy consumption of the steel industry
improvement in the past few years.
in China with international levels

4. Energy consumption situation of several main processes in

Energy consumption per tonne of steel in China is higher than
the steel industry
that of most advanced countries. One of the reasons for this is that
the energy utilization efficiency in China is low. The average energy
Fig. 5 shows the variations in energy consumption of several
consumption per unit of steel is about 20% higher than that of other
major processes in the steel industry from 1995 to 2005 [3,10]. The
advanced countries. Compared with Japan, for example, energy
energy consumption of the blast furnace, electric furnace and steel
consumption for China’s large and medium firms in 2004 was
rolling processes has decreased remarkably since 1995, and the
705 kgce per tonne of steel, 7.5% higher than that in Japan, which
corresponding values for the coking, sintering, and converter
was 656 kgce per tonne. However, the energy consumption level of
furnaces have also shown minor decreases. In contrast to the years
the small production units in China was as high as 1045 kgce per
before 2001, the current energy consumption of the blast furnace
tonne of steel.
process presents an increasing trend that is attributed to cost
increases since 2001 in raw materials for iron making, such as coke
and coal. Converter furnace
Among several major processes, the energy consumption of the 2.22%
iron making process is markedly higher than that of other Electric furnace
Blast furnace 17.5%
processes. Taking the example of 2004 as shown in Fig. 6, the total 39.0%

Steel rolling
Table 1
7.77%
Data comparison of energy saving, water saving and environmental protection in
2000 and 2005.

Year 2000 Year 2005 Variation of

2005 to 2000 (%) Power
Comparable energy consumption 760 714.12 6.04 12.5%
(kgce/t steel)
Power consumption (kilowatt-h/t steel) 504 452.24 10.27 Sintering
Recycling utilization ratio of industrial 87 92 þ4.96 5.55%
water (%) Balling
Coking
SO2 emissions (g/t steel) 5563 3080 44.63 3.51%
11.9%
Smoke emissions (g/t steel) 1696 710 58.14
Dust emissions (g/t steel) 5077 1540 69.67
Fig. 6. Energy consumption structure of several main processes in the steel industry
COD emissions (g/t steel) 985 415 57.87
in 2004.
 Z.C. Guo, Z.X. Fu / Energy 35 (2010) 4356–4360 4359

Table 2
Energy efficiency of several processes in the steel industry.

Sintering Coking Iron making Converter furnace steel Electric furnace steel Steel rolling
(kgce/t) (kgce/t) (kgce/t) making (kgce/t) making (kgce/t) (kgce/t)
International level 1999 (Japan) 58.89 128.1 437.93 8.88 198.6 64
China average 2002 67.75 147.38 454.21 27.04 230.2 101.32
China average 2003 65.90 140.81 483.89 25.45 210.49 97.34
China average 2004 66.38 142.21 466.2 26.57 209.89 92.91
Advanced domestic steel works 2004 52.06 88.13 395.41 3.77 146.31 53.68
Backward domestic steel works 2004 108.6 229.15 591.81 75.23 325.44 286.89

The general energy efficiency of China’s steel industry is still the power generated from TRT equipment is equal to the power
relatively low. One of the important reasons is the existence of energy consumed when the coal gas pressure at the top of the blast
these small units. Table 2 shows that there is a vast difference in furnace is 80 kPa. Economic returns may be obtained when the
energy consumption between the advanced and small plants [8]. pressure of the coal gas reaches 100 kPa and even higher economic
Only a few large-scale steel-makers have attained or have even returns can be achieved, especially, if the coal gas pressure is
exceeded the international levels. Since the output of these greater than 120 kPa. In steel production by the blast furnace route,
advanced plants cannot achieve market dominance, the average increasing the pressure at the top of the blast furnace is advanta-
energy consumption level of China’s iron and steel industry is still geous as it leads to recovery of energy resources. The amount of
embarrassing. power generated increases by 30% if dry dust is removed at the coal
The second reason is the existence of small-scale and decen- gas purification stage and the turbine capacity by about 3% if the
tralized industry in China. There are 18 plants with production temperature of coal gas is raised by 10  C. If TRT equipment is
capacities exceeding 5 Mt of crude steel, which accounted for adopted, it is estimated that 30% of energy can be recovered from
46.36% of the total national crude steel production in 2005. In the air blast for the furnace and the energy consumption in the steel
Japan, the crude steel production of four largest plants accounted making processes reduced by l l kgce/t.
for 73.22% of the total national crude steel production in 2004, At the end of 2007, the blast furnaces of capacity greater than
three of which accounted for 61.09%. Except for a few of the large- 2000 m3 in China that were equipped with TRT technology
scale steel plants, China’s steel industry lags behind in technology, numbered 49. In future, the use of TRT technology large-scale blast
equipment, energy saving, environmental protection, etc. The third furnaces in China will be widespread and vigorous.
reason is that the low recovery and recycling efficiency of the
secondary energy resources results in higher energy consumption. 6.3. To expand the technology of pulverized coal injection for the
blast furnace
6. Measures and policy recommendations for the iron and
steel industries of China Use of pulverized coal injection for blast furnaces is an impor-
tant innovation for optimizing steel making systems using the blast
6.1. To expand coke dry quenching technology furnace route. In addition, it is a powerful incentive to prompt the
iron–steel industry to progress in many aspects such as optimizing
Traditionally, the sensible heat of hot coke, pushed from the energy structure, energy saving, reducing consumption of mate-
coking chamber at the temperature of 950–1050  C, is almost equal rials, cost reduction, etc. Replacing coke by coal can ease the
to 35%–40% of the total amount of heat consumed in the coking problem of coking coal shortage caused by energy saving measures.
process. Adopting coke dry quenching technology can enable Besides, it can reduce environmental pollution from the coking
recovery of about 80% of the sensible heat from hot coke. Besides, process while also producing considerable economic returns
during dry quenching 1 tonne of hot coke can generate 0.45– resulting from the price difference between coal and coke.
0.60 tonne of steam at a pressure of about 3.9 MPa. The coke dry In 2007, the average quantity of pulverized coal injection
quenching process belongs to a technology that is energy saving, employed for the blast furnace route by China’s large and medium
environmentally protective, and pollution-free. By using coke dry producers was 137 kg per tonne of iron, which in 2000 was 118 kg
quenching, it is estimated that the rotary drum strength (M40) of per tonne of iron. The average quantity of injection has exceeded
coke increases by 3%–8% and the coke strength after CO2 reaction 200 kg per tonne of iron in some large-scale blast furnaces of China.
by 3%–4%. In addition, the quantity of weak binding coal input can The 4350 m3 capacity blast furnace in Bao-steel is an example. It is
be increased by 10% saving about 0.38 tonne of water for every estimated that in 2010 the average pulverized coal injection
tonne of coke. quantity realized in China’s blast furnaces iron will be 160 kg per
At the end of 2005, the proportion of coke dry quenching tonne.
technology usage in China’s iron and steel industry was less than
30%. At the end of 2007, with the spread of this technology rein- 6.4. To eliminate low-level equipment and introduce and develop
forced by an independent innovation in the past two years, the new technology
proportion of usage rose to 45%. Now 34 sets of the coke dry
quenching unit are under construction and the output share of coke Over the past few years, the government of China made a strong
of about 101.58 Mt produced by the coke dry quenching technology effort to eliminate low-level equipment. The energy consumption
accounts for one-third of the total national production. of China’s small iron and steel units was 1.5 times higher than that
of the large and medium producers. When China implemented its
6.2. To expand top gas pressure recovery turbine (TRT) technology 11th five-year plan’s policy of energy saving and reducing discharge
of pollutants the steel industry was restructured, its equipment
Power can be generated with the energy of pressure from the capacities enhanced, and pace of modernization accelerated all of
top of a blast furnace using a turbine generator group. Theoretically, which produced an enormous effect.
4360 Z.C. Guo, Z.X. Fu / Energy 35 (2010) 4356–4360

In 2007, the number of blast furnaces with a capacity of 2000 m3 energy utilization efficiency, the existence of some small-scale and
in China was 63, 17 more than that in 2005, and production capacity decentralized industries and low recovery and recycling efficiency
increased by 35%. The number of converters with a capacity of of the secondary energy resources. During 2006–2010, the period
100 tonnes was 98 in 2007, eight more than that in 2005, and of China’s 11th five-year plan, based on existing policies, measures
production capacity increased by 8%. In 2007, the overall energy and standards, China will promulgate and implement some new
consumption, the fresh water consumption, the total emission of policies with more ambitious objectives of sustainable develop-
SO2, the total soot emission, and the total mill dust emission per ment and restructuring in the steel industry. One objective of this
tonne of steel declined by about 8%, 24%, 4.5%, 3% and 4.5%, plan is to build a society committed to energy conservation and
respectively, when compared with that in 2005. a pollution-free environment and to develop the recycling economy
In addition, China’s iron and steel industries introduced and chain in the iron and steel industry. Successful implementation of
developed actively new technologies, such as COREX and C300 current sustainable development policies and measures will result
melted-deoxidize technology. in considerable energy saving.
According to this plan, China’s energy consumption per GDP in
6.5. To create the recycling economy chain within the ‘China’s 11th five-year plan’ will decrease by 20%, the water
iron–steel industry consumption per unit of industrial added value will decrease by
30% and the total emission of main pollutants will decrease by 10%.
It is believed that three recycling economy chains could be Some major tasks will be undertaken for some high energy
developed in the iron–steel production process aiming at zero consumption industries such as the iron and steel industry,
emission. First is recycling flue gas, which means that not only coal nonferrous metal industry, coal industry, power sector, and
or coke but also flue gas will be recycled from blast furnaces, chemical industry. Therefore, a new industrial path leading to the
converters, or coke ovens to realize zero flue gas emission. The use of technology-intensive products, optimal economic efficien-
second is recycling industrial wastewater, which means that the cies, lower resource consumption, and less environmental pollu-
consumption of fresh water will be minimized and industrial tion should be forged. There will be significant energy savings by
wastewater will be recycled using some treating equipment. The optimizing end-use energy utilization.
third is recycling solid waste materials. It is a comprehensive reuse
process for some raw materials such as iron ores left over from the
production process. References
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