Steel industry "12th Five-Year" energy-saving indicators or difficult to complete

Although the energy consumption per unit of industry in China fell by 7.91% in the first three quarters of 2012, the completion of energy-saving indicators in the first three quarters was not satisfactory for the steel industry, which consumes resources, energy, and emits pollution.

Recently, Li Xinchuang, executive deputy secretary general of the China Iron and Steel Association and director of the Metallurgical Industry Planning Institute, said at the “2012 China Energy Conservation and Low Carbon Development Forum” that compared to 2011, the overall energy consumption per ton of steel is on an upward trend. It is increasingly difficult to complete energy-saving indicators.

Difficult to complete the indicator

Prior to this, the "12th Five-Year Plan" of the Industrial Energy Conservation clearly stated that during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, the energy consumption per unit of industrial value of the iron and steel industry would fall by 18% from 2010, and by 2015, the comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel would be from 2010. The annual 605kgce dropped 4.1% to 580kgce.

The public data show that compared with 2005, the comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel decreased by 12.8%, with an average annual decrease of 2.6%; compared with 2010, the energy consumption per ton of steel decreased by only 0.5%; the monthly indicators from 2012 From the viewpoint, the energy consumption index per ton of steel fluctuates, showing an overall upward trend.

"This year's rise in the energy consumption index per ton of steel is related to the status of production. The production situation has deteriorated and the difficulty of completing the targets has also increased." Li Xinchuang said in an interview with a reporter from the China Energy News, "The benefits of the enterprises are not good. It will purchase low-quality low-cost ore to reduce production costs, while low-grade ore will cause problems such as higher iron-making energy consumption and increased pollutant emissions.”

It is understood that from January to September this year, China's crude steel production was 542.44 million tons, an increase of 1.7% year-on-year, a 8.2 percentage point lower than last year's growth rate, which is lower than the level of the year-on-year growth of crude steel production in 2008. Judging from the monthly crude steel production level, August and September were significantly lower than the previous period and were basically the same as last year.

According to the statistical data of the Steel Association, from January to August this year, the accumulated sales revenue of key large and medium-sized steel enterprises included in the statistics was 2,286.609 billion yuan, 6.21% lower than the same period of last year, and the profit tax was 43.122 billion yuan, 66.8% lower than the same period of last year. Total profit - 3.184 billion yuan, down 104.22% year-on-year. It is noteworthy that, in August, the steel industry data was “shocking”. The monthly sales income was 279.45 billion yuan, profits and taxes were 95 million yuan, profit income was -4.196 billion yuan, and profitability fell to the lowest point of the year.

Recycling is a difficult point

According to preliminary estimates, the energy consumption of the iron and steel industry accounts for about 23% of the total energy consumption of the industry, and 16.1% of the total energy consumption in the country. The emissions of sulfur dioxide and solid waste account for 8% and 16% of the total industrial output, respectively.

“The iron and steel industry has great potential for energy saving, but as an overcapacity industry, its 'Twelfth Five-Year' development will undoubtedly be based on transfer mode and structural adjustment. The government has also proposed the idea of ​​eliminating the combination of backwardness, mergers and reorganizations, and technological transformation.” Wang Qinghai, president of the China Iron and Steel Association, said.

However, in addition to structural adjustment and technical changes, the iron and steel industry is the most troublesome resource recycling, including waste heat utilization, slag sensible heat recovery and utilization, converter waste heat utilization and so on.

According to Huang Dao, deputy director of the Steel Association for Development and Technology and Environmental Protection Department, the iron and steel industry "is inherently inefficient in recovering secondary energy such as waste heat and energy, and must further study the applicability of relevant technologies and improve its application level."

According to the Steel Association revealed that the current energy-saving effect and the popularization rate of secondary energy recycling technology need to be improved, the efficiency of steam recovery and utilization is not high, and the potential for gas recycling and utilization remains to be excavated.

An industry insider who did not wish to be named also told this reporter that it is still difficult for steel companies to use secondary energy power generation projects for online approval, and some companies have even been denied access to the Internet.

In response, Li Xinchuang proposed the use of medium and low-temperature waste heat as one of the main battlefields for energy conservation in the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, and promoted inter-industry cooperation to improve the efficiency of secondary energy use. "For example, conditional steel mills can cooperate with heating companies to use low-temperature waste heat resources for heating and heating of surrounding urban residents; cooperate with power plants surrounding steel enterprises to develop common thermal power generation," said Li Xinchuang.

Expecting a reasonable development environment

According to reports, during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, China's steel production capacity increased by about 300 million tons, of which only about one-third of new production capacity passed the approval of the national construction project environmental impact assessment, and other production capacities are actually not standardized. Implementation of the state construction project environmental impact assessment approval procedures completed.

The staff of an iron and steel company also told reporters that because of the high cost and power consumption of environmental protection facilities, the environmental protection facilities of many enterprises are only tools to cope with inspections, and they often stop or sneak. “The law-abiding costs are high and the illegal costs are low. It will not achieve the effect of energy saving and emission reduction."

“The government should strengthen supervision of energy conservation and emission reduction, and encourage companies to improve relevant energy and pollution prevention facilities.” Li Xinchuang stated that “Once the scale of production, process flow, structure, and equipment are determined, the steel company will be equipped with improved energy conservation and energy measurement. After the measures, the comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel can also be determined."

Li Xinchuang believes that it is worth noting that the local government does not take into account the industrial characteristics and production process differences of iron and steel enterprises when assessing the energy consumption targets of iron and steel enterprises. “For example, the total energy consumption per ton of steel is required to reach 580kgce, but this is very unreasonable for some deep processing and full-process companies.”

In this regard, Li Xinchuang proposed that the country can formulate a reasonable range of energy consumption intensity according to the company's production process, equipment scale, and processing depth, etc., according to the assessment of different companies, to create a more reasonable environment for enterprise development.