Rio Tinto and Shougang have started up an industrial-scale carbon capture trial facility at Shougang's Jingtang steel base in China. The unit can process up to 3,000 cubic meters of blast furnace gas per hour and capture about 10,000 metric tons of CO2 annually. It builds on a smaller pilot from 2024 and their 2022 decarbonization agreement covering sintering, furnace optimization, and carbon capture. The project uses waste heat from existing operations to lower capture costs, which could make the technology more affordable for other steel mills. The partners are also looking at converting captured carbon into syngas for reuse in steelmaking, potentially cutting fresh carbon inputs. Rio Tinto is providing technical support for scaling Shougang's capture technology.
