The stage is set at the Kimitsu Area of Nippon Steel Corp.’s East Nippon Works in Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture. Course 50 is a project aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the process of making iron, jointly promoted by four companies, including Nippon Steel and JFE Steel Corp., as well as the Japanese government. The project’s goal is to reduce the amount of emissions by 30% by combining technologies that reduce carbon dioxide generated in blast furnaces and separate and collect any carbon dioxide that is generated. Researchers have concluded that the reduction target is reachable, and at a test blast furnace, a reduction process using hydrogen, the project’s core technology, has reached a phase where researchers are working to find ways to apply it for practical use.

Promising technology

Blast furnaces, used in the upstream of the steelmaking process, use coke, made by heating coal in the absence of air, to eliminate the oxygen contained in iron ore. Carbon dioxide is discharged in the chemical reaction. But by substituting hydrogen for a part of the role played by coke, water is created instead of carbon dioxide. This technology, called hydrogen reduction, is regarded as a promising weapon for combating global warming. At this point, hydrogen used in the project is a byproduct generated in the process of manufacturing coke. That means the test achieves recycling of resources within a steelworks. In the past, hydrogen from a coke oven at Nippon Steel’s Nagoya Works was supplied to fuel some of the buses going between venues of the World Exposition in Aichi Prefecture in 2005.

More than 10-year endeavor

Efforts to develop a steelmaking process using hydrogen, which has a low environmental load, are also underway elsewhere in the world, including efforts by Europe’s ArcelorMittal SA. Having worked on the project over the last 10 years, however, the Japanese group is ahead of rivals.

“The phenomenon itself has been known for a long time. People in different countries are competing against each other on how to take advantage of it in practical applications as the next-generation iron-making process,” Hideki Murakami, a fellow at Nippon Steel, said. As he implied, it is not easy to find ways to use it in actual operation according to principles of reduction mechanisms and reaction controls that have already been confirmed, while at the same time improving precision.

Seiji Nomura, another Nippon Steel fellow who serves as the Course 50 project leader, said: “At the test blast furnace, we gradually raised precision through the combination of experiments and simulation models, adjusting how much — and from where — hydrogen-based gas is injected into the blast furnace and exploring ways to control reduction reaction, which changes over time. After much trial and error, we successfully reduced carbon dioxide by 10%. A major issue was that the temperature inside the blast furnace dropped as hydrogen reduction reaction progressed.”

The test blast furnace is one of the largest of its kind in the world. “Our tests are going into unknown territory,” Nomura said. The project aims to complete the first commercial unit by around 2030, assuming, by then, the infrastructure for storing carbon dioxide will be ready and it makes economic sense to use it. It further aims to make sure the technology will be in wide use by around 2050, assuming it will replace existing pieces of equipment as they reach the end of their useful life.

Innovative technology

Japan has come up with the “beyond zero” concept, which seeks to reduce carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere, going beyond achieving carbon neutrality around the world. A key to achieving this is in the “historical shift in the concentration of carbon dioxide since the Earth’s creation to present day,” Yoshino said.

“Carbon dioxide concentration on the ancient Earth is believed to have been several tens of percent, but it has decreased to 400 parts per million presently,” Yoshino said. “As carbon dioxide is an acidic substance, it is immobilized by neutralization, but, unfortunately, neutralizing reactions created by substances existing on the ground have ended. One possible way to further neutralize carbon dioxide is to make alkaline substances in the soil that absorb carbon dioxide. Another is photosynthetic organisms. If a major innovation emerges in this area, we should be able to find new possibilities that are different from existing biomass technologies. Personally, I’m interested in algae with high rates of absorption.”

ICEF 2020 was held to promote a global-scale effort to develop such innovative technologies. In addition to discussions from a technological viewpoint, panelists discussed the role the financial industry can play in accelerating innovation. Fiona Reynolds, chief executive officer of the U.N.-supported Principles for Responsible Investment, said companies in not only Europe, but also Asia now commit to net zero (where carbon dioxide emissions and absorption is balanced out) as a comprehensive goal by 2050. This has been made possible by increasing investor engagement from the financial industry.

Tokyo ‘Beyond-Zero’ Week

There were a series of international conferences related to “beyond zero” organized by Japan in a period from late September to early October. The series, titled Tokyo “Beyond-Zero” Week, was aimed at showcasing Japan’s global efforts in tackling global warming.

The TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures)summit discussed promotion of climate-related financial disclosure as a basis for private-sector investment. At this summit , the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced 320 Japanese companies that were recognized for their active efforts in environmental innovation. Japan aims to encourage investors in Japan and overseas to provide funding based on TCFD disclosure information.

Research and Development 20 is a forum of leaders from research organizations in the area of clean energy. It provides a framework for discussion, mainly among the Group of 20 countries, which account for about 70 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. In the second meeting this year, participants agreed to prepare for the formation of joint international research initiatives.