The ferroalloy industry in Ulanqab City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which emerged in the 1990s, was once labeled as "black, large, and crude" by outsiders due to its extensive production methods. Recently, a reporter visited Ulanqab City and observed that after years of persistent efforts in green transformation, the ferroalloy industry here has achieved a transition from "black to green." Currently, its annual output value has exceeded 80 billion yuan, making Ulanqab the largest prefecture-level city in China in terms of ferroalloy production.
Walking into Inner Mongolia Jitie Ferroalloy Co., Ltd., surrounded by lush greenery, a gentle breeze carries the fragrance of flowers and grass. "While producing ferroalloy products, the company annually utilizes nearly 600 million m³ of electric furnace tail gas to replace natural gas, enabling the annual production of 100,000 mt of large-sized ultra-high-power graphite electrodes and 175,000 mt of methanol products. This not only achieves carbon capture and carbon neutrality but also further extends the industry chain," said Guo Jun, the chairman of the company.
The development case of Jitie Ferroalloy Co., Ltd. represents the transformation in the development approach and philosophy of a group of ferroalloy enterprises in Ulanqab City. The ferroalloy industry was once recognized as a high-energy-consuming industry, especially with phenomena such as unsealed submerged arc furnaces and "sky burning" of coal gas, posing significant challenges to the sustainable development of the local ferroalloy industry.
Guided by the national "dual carbon" goals, in 2021, based on previous transformations, Ulanqab City implemented the "three batches" and "five transformations" actions for the ferroalloy industry with a resolute determination, namely eliminating and exiting a batch, upgrading through technological transformation a batch, extending and strengthening the industry chain a batch, as well as dust sealing, energy consumption benchmarking, resource recycling, intelligence, and green energy utilization. The continuous advancement of industrial transformation and upgrading has led to a transformation of the ferroalloy industry from extensive to refined and from low-end to high-end.
Yu Haicheng, the deputy mayor of Ulanqab City, introduced that in the past, the ferroalloy industry all adopted AC smelting, which had problems such as high energy consumption and poor load regulation ability compared to DC furnace smelting technology. Therefore, Ulanqab City organized local enterprises to collaborate with domestic research institutes, universities, design units, and equipment manufacturers to actively promote the R&D of DC smelting technology.
After nearly two years of research, Inner Mongolia Jinglei Industrial Co., Ltd. successfully applied the "DC submerged arc furnace smelting technology" in 2024 and built a large-capacity, fully enclosed submerged arc DC smelting furnace for manganese-silicon alloy, reducing unit electricity consumption by 10% to 15% and coke consumption by about 10%, significantly lowering the enterprise's production costs.
At Inner Mongolia Baite Metallurgical and Building Materials Co., Ltd., trucks loaded with rock wool and mineral wool frequently drive out of the enterprise. The company engages in resource recycling, annually utilizing 245,000 mt of tail slag generated from ferroalloy production to produce rock wool through cold slag high-temperature melting and mineral wool through hot slag hot-charging and hot-mixing methods, while also generating electricity using the residual gas and heat from ferroalloy production.
"In 2024, the annual output value of cotton production from optical tail slag and power generation from residual gas and heat exceeded 100 million yuan," said Yang Lijun, the general manager of the company. He added that taking the path of green and low-carbon development has not burdened the enterprise but has instead strengthened its development momentum.
Data from the Ulanqab Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology shows that from 2021 to 2022, the "Three Batches" and "Five Transformations" initiatives drove approximately 4 billion yuan in investment for technological upgrades. Since 2021, 1.52 million mt of outdated production capacity has been phased out, and the number of ferroalloy enterprises has been optimized from 91 to 58...
Yu Haicheng said that after years of transformation and upgrading, the proportion of ferroalloy production capacity above the energy efficiency benchmark in the city has reached 60%, with 100% utilization of residual gas and comprehensive disposal of waste slag. The proportion of green electricity in newly built projects exceeds 60%. "In 2024, the city's total ferroalloy production reached 11.32 million mt, with an output value exceeding 80 billion yuan, creating 18,000 jobs," he said.
During the process of "pursuing greenness," both local governments and enterprises have reaped benefits, and the ferroalloy industry has become more determined to follow a new path of high-quality development guided by ecological priority and green development. In Xinghe County, a 2.56 billion yuan green power supply project for ferroalloys was launched on April 15th. In the future, it will reduce production costs through green electricity supply while also cutting carbon emissions.
"Ferroalloy is not only a traditional and advantageous industry in Ulanqab but also a future core and pillar industry," said Yu Haicheng. "Ulanqab will leverage its abundant new energy resources to explore new technologies and processes such as carbon-free smelting, gradually transforming the ferroalloy industry into a low-carbon and zero-carbon industry. Green and low-carbon development will become a distinctive feature of Ulanqab's high-quality ferroalloy industry, striving towards an output value of 100 billion yuan."
Source: Ulanqab Municipal People's Government
For details, see: Ulanqab: Ferroalloy Industry "Shifts from Black to Green," Striving for 100 Billion Yuan Output Value - Today's Ulanqab - Ulanqab Municipal People's Government
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