In recent days, Hegang has achieved the world’s first 1.2 million ton hydrogen metallurgy demonstration project (hereinafter referred to as the hydrogen metallurgy demonstration project), achieving safe and smooth continuous production of green DRI products. At present, the metallization rate of DRI products has reached 94%, and the key indicators have fully met the qualified product standards. It can be used as a high-quality and clean raw material for high-end material manufacturing, and is an important raw material to replace electric furnace scrap, especially high-quality scrap. This marks the complete success of the first phase of the project, becoming an important milestone in the transformation from traditional «carbon metallurgy» to new «hydrogen metallurgy» in the history of Chinese steel and even world steel.

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that «based on China’s energy and resource endowment, we must adhere to the principle of first establishing and then breaking, and implement the carbon peak action in a planned and step-by-step manner.» In the trend of global energy towards clean, low-carbon, and intelligent development, the steel industry, whether in terms of energy structure innovation or process structure innovation, hydrogen energy application is the best way to achieve low-carbon or even «zero carbon» emissions.
As a pioneer in the green transformation of the steel industry, Hegang is committed to working alongside the national «dual carbon» strategy, deeply cultivating the integration, innovation, and coordinated development of hydrogen energy and steel, leading the research and development of global hydrogen metallurgy technology, and collaborating with well-known enterprises such as Tenon in Italy to establish a hydrogen metallurgy demonstration project.
This project plays a significant leading role in breaking through the core key technologies of hydrogen metallurgy and promoting the transformation and upgrading of China’s steel industry, providing a new path and creating a new scene for China’s steel industry to «break away» from its deep dependence on traditional fossil fuels such as coal.

The Hegang Hydrogen Metallurgy Demonstration Project breaks the conventional method of using natural gas to prepare reduction process gas internationally, and pioneered the «coke oven gas zero reforming shaft furnace direct reduction» process technology. It fully utilizes the advantages of rich coke oven gas resources and innovatively uses coke oven gas as the gas base. As a hydrogen energy source that can be directly utilized, coke oven gas contains 55% -65% hydrogen gas, which can be catalytic cracked into CO and H ₂ in a hydrogen based vertical furnace, achieving «self adjustment». After self adjustment, the hydrogen to carbon ratio in the process gas can reach over 8:1, making it the highest hydrogen content gas based shaft furnace direct reduction process in industrial production and the closest to the future 100% hydrogen reduction process state. At the same time, the hydrogen metallurgy demonstration project of Hegang has optimized the design of the shaft furnace reactor for high proportion hydrogen content, reserving the green hydrogen switching function. Industrial experiments can be directly carried out to switch to higher proportion hydrogen rich reduction gas or pure hydrogen as raw gas without large-scale transformation, providing a foundation for the future implementation of 100% green hydrogen direct reduction in the shaft furnace.

In addition, Hegang has also developed an internationally leading «CO ₂ capture+CO ₂ refining» technology, forming a green short process process that includes 30 hydrogen metallurgy patented technologies such as «Full Oxygen and Rich Hydrogen Low Carbon Reduction Melting Ironmaking System and Ironmaking Method» and «Gas Based Direct Reduction Ironmaking Method and System for Controlling Nitrogen Enrichment», creating a scalable A replicable «zero carbon» hydrogen production and innovative development model that complements the development of the hydrogen energy industry.
According to calculations, compared to the traditional «blast furnace+converter» long process process with the same production scale, the first phase of the hydrogen metallurgy demonstration project at Hegang has