Abstract
Hard-to-abate sectors emitted ~30% of global CO2 emissions in 2018. As the world’s largest producer of chemicals and steel, China’s mitigation efforts in these sectors are crucial. Here we examine the greenhouse gas mitigation and costs of co-producing steel and chemicals in China by extracting H2 and CO from steelmaking off-gas for chemical production and using a customized optimization model with a life-cycle assessment. Without carbon pricing, co-production reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 36 MtCO2eq yr−1 (−7%) and costs by 1.5 billion CNY per year (−1%) relative to independent production. A carbon price of 350 CNY per tCO2 enhances emissions and cost reductions to 113 MtCO2eq yr−1 (−22%) and 25.5 billion CNY per year (−10%), respectively. Furthermore, 60% of total emissions and cost reductions can be achieved via 24% of connections, ~50% of which are in Hebei, Henan, Shanxi and Shandong provinces. This study demonstrates the cost-effectiveness of using co-production to mitigate these hard-to-abate emissions and the importance of targeting critical connections to obtain the majority of reductions.
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Source data are provided with this paper. All data and parameters used for this study are provided in Source data and Supplementary Information.
Code availability
Each component of our model is detailed in Supplementary Information with parameterizations provided for each step. The codes for the optimization algorithms and mapping of grid boxes are available via GitHub at https://github.com/indsyn/Steel-chemical (ref. 43).
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03 May 2024
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Princeton University for financial support. Y.G. acknowledges the support from the Schmidt Science Fellows, in partnership with the Rhodes Trust. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, or decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.
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Y.G. and D.L.M. conceived the research idea. Y.G., J.L. and D.L.M. designed the study procedures; Y.G. and J.L. compiled the database and configured the scenarios; Y.G. conducted the parameterizations and modeling; Y.G. and J.L. made the figures and tables; J.L., Q.Z., Y.C. and L.C. contributed to parameterizations; Y.G., J.L., Q.Z., Y.C., L.C. and D.L.M. analyzed the results; Y.G., J.L. and D.L.M. wrote the paper with contributions from all authors.
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Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Notes 1–7, Tables 1–11, Figs. 1–4 and References.
Supplementary Data
Source data for supplementary figures and the inventory of steel and coal chemical plants.
Source data
Source Data Fig. 1
Changes in GHG emissions and costs per tonne of H2 or CO used for co-production relative to independent production.
Source Data Fig. 2
Supply of H2 and CO from steel plants and demand for H2 and CO in coal chemical plants in China.
Source Data Fig. 3
GHG mitigation rates and cost reduction rates in co-production relative to independent production across carbon prices and pipeline length limits.
Source Data Fig. 4
Changes in GHG emissions and costs by industrial process in co-production relative to independent production.
Source Data Fig. 5
Cost-effective supply of H2 and CO in the co-production from origin provinces (rows) to destination provinces (columns).
Source Data Fig. 6
Onsite GHG mitigation of H2 and CO connections in co-production relative to independent production.
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Guo, Y., Lu, J., Zhang, Q. et al. Co-production of steel and chemicals to mitigate hard-to-abate carbon emissions. Nat Chem Eng 1, 365–375 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44286-024-00061-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44286-024-00061-1
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