Recently, the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) released the Notice on the Results of the “2020 National Benchmarking Competition for Energy Saving and Consumption Reduction of Key Large-scale Energy-consuming Steel Production Equipment”. Beijing Shougang’s No. 2 Blast Furnace (2,650 m3) and Shougang Jingtang’s No. 3 Blast Furnace (5,500 m3) won the title of “Champion Furnace”; Beijing Shougang’s No. 7 Sintering Machine (360 m2) and No. 5 Converter (210 tons), and Shougang Jingtang’s No. 2 Converter (300 tons) won the title of “Superior Furnace”; and Beijing Shougang’s No. 3 Blast Furnace (4,000 m3) won the title of “Pioneering Furnace”.

The National Benchmarking Competition for Energy Saving and Consumption Reduction of Key Large-scale Energy-consuming Steel Production Equipment is an important measure for implementing the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and State Council on vigorously promoting ecological civilization construction, as well as a concrete action for conscientiously implementing the Opinions on Deepening Labor and Skills Competitions Under the Theme of “Being a Good Master and Contributing to the New Era” of ACFTU, aiming to promote energy saving and consumption reduction among iron and steel enterprises, and improve their quality and efficiency, as well as their transformation and upgrading, by mobilizing the enthusiasm of their employees.

Beijing Shougang’s No. 2 Blast Furnace (2,650 m3) was ignited on January 4th, 2007. Over the years, Beijing Shougang has constantly improved its green manufacturing capacity and committed itself to building a model “energy-saving, environmentally friendly, clean and efficient” blast furnace. On the basis of its existing energy-saving and environmentally friendly facilities, Beijing Shougang has strengthened its application of new energy-saving technologies, solidly promoted various energy-saving and environmental protection measures, improved its energy-saving and environmental protection capacity, optimized and reached the standards, and made unremitting efforts to build a green, efficient and low-consumption blast furnace.

With its No. 3 Blast Furnace (5,500 m3), Shougang Jingtang gives full play to the advantages of large blast furnace technology and equipment, and practices the concept of green ironmaking. By optimizing the burden structure, adopting the dry dedusting technology of blast furnace gas, increasing the air temperature, recovering gas with even pressure at the top, reducing the power consumption, etc., the utilization factor of the blast furnace has been improved and its coke ratio and CO2 emissions have been reduced. At the same time, the consumption of new water and energy in the ironmaking process has been significantly reduced, the utilization efficiency of secondary energy has been improved and environmental pollution has been reduced.

For the No. 7 Sintering Machine (360 m2), Beijing Shougang has focused on key tasks such as ensuring the blast furnace supply, upgrading the equipment, comprehensively controlling the air leakage of the system, improving the granulation effect of the mixture, etc. Multiple measures have been taken simultaneously to ensure quality and increase production, give full play to the efficiency of the main equipment and ensure the normal supply of the blast furnace burden. The waste heat system has been upgraded to improve the waste heat generating capacity and system automatic control level. The resource structure has been optimized to increase the proportion of various solid wastes and reduce the ore blending cost according to market resources. In 2020, stable operation under ultra-low emission conditions was realized, ensuring consistent sinter quality.

Beijing Shougang’s No. 5 Converter (210 tons) has been constantly optimized, including the adjustment of gas recovery conditions, improvement of the multipurpose utilization of converter gas, minimization of emissions and successful completion of the steam recovery task. Moreover, the maintenance and control level of the sublance model has been improved, oxygen consumption has been reduced on the basis of enhanced management, steelmaking with low iron consumption has been conducted, the automatic steelmaking model of the converter has been optimized, HD cameras have been installed in front of the furnace, the statistical tracking of splashes in the daily production of the converter has been conducted, the direct tapping rate of the converter has been improved and after-blow has been reduced. Compared with 2019, the comprehensive energy consumption control per ton of steel in 2020 was greatly improved.

For the No. 2 Converter (300 tons), Shougang Jingtang paid close attention to basic refined management, deepened the awareness of “home finance” and “continuous improvement”, actively tackled difficulties in reducing energy consumption, popularized the advanced experience and technology learned in last year’s “Benchmarking Competition for Energy Saving and Consumption Reduction”, developed a 3DT water quality management system for converter vaporization, improved the gas recovery of the converter per ton of steel, reduced argon consumption and power waste, and launched the “Special Labor Competition for Decreasing Costs and Increasing Benefits”, thereby achieving new breakthroughs in converter energy consumption reduction.

For the No. 3 Blast Furnace (4,000 m3), Beijing Shougang focused on long-term running stability, adhered to the production philosophy of “safety, environmental protection, energy saving, low consumption and high efficiency”, and tackled many unfavorable factors such as environmental protection and limited production and maintenance. Production based on energy saving and consumption reduction has been continuously promoted, the basic operation system has been optimized, the ability of the blast furnace to resist external fluctuations has been improved, a scientific plan for stopping the air supply has been formulated, the process has been strictly controlled and careful operation has been strengthened, thereby ensuring stable blast furnace production.