Tracking of Green Hydrogen Projects: Xingguo Casting Industry's "300,000 m³/Day Water Electrolysis Hydrogen Production—Hydrogen Storage—450 m³ Blast Furnace Hydrogen-Enriched Smelting" Project Operates Continuously for One Year

Xingguo Precision Components Co., Ltd. (shortened as Xingguo Casting) in Changli County successfully operated the "300,000 m³/d green electricity electrolysis water hydrogen production - hydrogen storage - 450 m³ blast furnace hydrogen-enriched smelting" industrial demonstration project for a year, marking that the new process of "hydrogen replacing carbon" in blast furnace pure hydrogen injection low-carbon smelting has passed the test of industrial production practice, providing a replicable technical model for the low-carbon transformation of the steel industry.

It is understood that after a year of optimizing key parameters across all processes, the project achieved the goals of increasing hydrogen injection per ton of iron, optimizing upstream and downstream coordination, and reducing energy consumption costs. Data shows that the pure hydrogen injection per ton of iron reached 136 m³, with an hourly pure hydrogen injection of 11,360 m³, a solid fuel replacement ratio of 0.36~1 kg/Nm³, and a 7%~16% reduction in CO2 emissions from blast furnace ironmaking. The pure oxygen produced as a byproduct during the electrolysis water hydrogen production, with a hydrogen purity of 99.8% and oxygen purity of 98.5%, was used for oxygen-enriched blast in the blast furnace. The DC power consumption for hydrogen production was less than 4.3 kWh/Nm³. Through the coordinated optimization of green electricity, self-generated power, and off-peak electricity, the cost of hydrogen production was controlled to within 14 yuan/kg; considering the changes in multiple parameters, the cost per ton of iron was reduced by 6~14 yuan. At the same time, the pure hydrogen injection into the blast furnace significantly reduced the consumption of coal and coke and the impurity content in hot metal, laying the foundation for the production of advanced clean and low-carbon pig iron and other new steel materials.

The industrial practice of this project presents four major characteristics: first, it innovatively created a "economically scaled hydrogen production - hydrogen storage and transportation - hydrogen-enriched blast furnace smelting" technical route, adding a hydrogen supply system on the basis of existing blast furnaces without changing the main structure, resulting in low technological upgrade costs and significant emission reduction effects, suitable for small blast furnaces ranging from 400 to 1,500 m³ and the use of domestic iron ore powder, fitting China's national conditions where long-process steelmaking predominates; second, it proposed a "local preparation, local utilization" model, combining regional resource characteristics, achieving stable supply of clean and low-carbon hydrogen through diversified power, ESS, etc., solving the coupling problem between the hydrogen and steel industries; third, it tackled key technologies and equipment for diversified power supply - hydrogen production - storage and transportation - smelting, adopting the largest single-unit alkaline electrolysis water hydrogen production equipment in China (single cell 3,000 Nm³/h) and a full-process safety risk control system, mastering the technology of coordinated regulation of hydrogen-coal-coke-oxygen; fourth, it established an integrated process of green hydrogen production-storage-utilization, forming a typical demonstration of large-scale renewable clean energy storage, consumption, and utilization locally.

The technical achievements of the project have received multiple recognitions: in 2023, the pure hydrogen injection technology for blast furnaces was recorded in the Blue Book of Hydrogen Metallurgy Technology Development; in 2024, it was selected as a new quality productive forces project in Qinhuangdao, rated as one of the top ten global steel industry technology news, listed as an important progress in low-carbon metallurgy technology by the Chinese Society for Metals, and included in MIIT's National Industrial Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction Technology Application Guide and Cases (2024 Edition). A series of 22 Chinese and PCT international invention patents (14 authorized) and 2 software copyrights have been formed. The first national standard for hydrogen-rich smelting in blast furnaces, "Hydrogen Metallurgy—Technical Requirements for Hydrogen-Rich System in Blast Furnace Smelting," drafted by Xingguo Metallurgy, Shanghai University, and Baosteel, among others, has entered the approval and implementation stage.

At the policy level, the "Steel Industry Steady Growth Work Plan (2025–2026)" jointly issued by five departments on September 22 explicitly supports the research and industrialization of low-carbon technologies such as hydrogen metallurgy; President Xi Jinping announced China’s new round of nationally determined contributions at the United Nations Climate Change Summit. The technological breakthroughs and standard development by the Xingguo Metallurgy project team will play a leading and driving role in the application of clean hydrogen energy and the hydrogen metallurgy industry.