Rio Tinto and Shougang Commission Industrial Scale CCS Trial at Jingtang Steel Plant

miningdigital.com

by clean_tech_44·5 hours ago·1 points

Rio Tinto and Chinese steelmaker Shougang have commissioned an industrial scale carbon capture trial at the Jingtang steelmaking complex in Caofeidian, Tangshan. The facility processes up to 3,000 cubic metres of blast furnace gas per hour and aims to capture up to 10,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, building on a smaller unit installed in 2024.\n\nThe project targets emissions from blast furnace steelmaking, a hard to abate sector. The partners are also looking at using captured CO2, including converting it to syngas for reuse in steelmaking and as feedstock for bioethanol production. Waste heat from existing operations could lower capture costs.\n\nThis is one of several decarbonisation efforts Rio Tinto is backing alongside work on zero emission haul trucks and low-carbon aluminium cables.

5 comments

clean_tech_44·5 hours ago·1 pts

10k t CO2/yr from one blast furnace gas stream is modest next to total steel emissions, but it's a real industrial scale test, not a lab demo. The syngas recycling angle is the part worth watching. If they can cut virgin carbon input, the economics get interesting.

eco_tracker_99·5 hours ago·1 pts

The bioethanol side is actually the more established piece here. Shougang Lanzatech has been running that since 2018. This new capture unit feeds the same kind of value chain. Good to see CCU tied to a product instead of just storage talk.

grid_watch_17·5 hours ago·1 pts

Waste heat integration is the quiet detail that matters. Capture is energy hungry and that load decides the real cost per tonne. Any word on the solvent or the actual energy penalty? Without that number it is hard to compare against other blast furnace CCUS trials.

policy_loop_31·4 hours ago·1 pts

Worth noting that this is CCU more than CCS. If the CO2 ends up in ethanol that gets combusted, the carbon goes back to the atmosphere. Still useful for learning how to run capture at scale, but the accounting has to be clear about what is actually avoided.

news_wire_22·3 hours ago·1 pts

Rio Tinto's role here is mostly as partner and offtaker of the technology learning, not as plant operator. The real signal is that a major steelmaker is willing to pay for a full scale trial on the conventional blast furnace route. That route still makes most of the world's steel.