EAF steelmaking technology - what is the future development of it in China

EAF steelmaking technology

In recent years, the annual output of crude steel in the world has ranged from 1.6 billion tons to 1.8 billion tons, including more than 400 million tons of electric furnace steel, accounting for about 25%. Except for China, the proportion of EAF steel in the global iron and steel industry has reached more than 40%. The proportion of electric furnace steel in the United States has reached 67%, which is the highest proportion of electric furnace steel in developed countries. In 2020, China's crude steel output reached 1.065 billion tons, including 96 million tons of electric furnace crude steel, accounting for about 9%, and there is still much room for improvement. By the end of 2020, China has about 420 electric furnaces with a capacity of more than 30 tons and a production capacity of 182.25 million tons.

Compared with the long process, the CO2 emission of the short process of electric furnace is only 25%, the solid waste emission is only 1 / 30, and the energy consumption is about 50%. Short process also has the advantages of start and stop, efficient and flexible production, and can absorb urban waste. With the gradual release of scrap resources in China, electric furnaces have great development potential in the next 10 ~ 15 years. The State encourages the use of scrap steel for steelmaking and short process steelmaking, encourages enterprises to replace the capacity of electric furnace process without adding new capacity, and encourages the replacement of capacity in areas with high environmental pressure and serious overcapacity to areas with relatively sufficient scrap steel and insufficient steel supply.

With the increase of the world's total steel output, the total output of electric furnace steelmaking is also increasing year by year. In addition to China, the proportion of EAF steel in the global iron and steel industry has reached more than 40%, and there is still much room for growth of EAF steel in China. In the future, the furnace type that can meet the requirements of high efficiency and energy saving, continuous feeding, scrap preheating, green environmental protection and waste heat recovery should be selected. The process technology should be selected according to the furnace type to complete the corresponding metallurgical function and realize sustainable development. At the same time, the development of electric furnace should also pay attention to energy-saving and low-cost production technology with high efficiency and low consumption, green key process technology, intelligent manufacturing technology, high value-added special steel metallurgy technology and other directions.