An integrated design method for CO2 emission reduction based on industrial metabolism:Hybrid carbon-hydrogen metallurgy manufacturing process (HCHMP)

The hybrid carbon-hydrogen metallurgy manufacturing process (HCHMP) is a promising stage for the future development of the iron and steel industry. Numerous studies focus on optimizing the material, energy, and carbon emissions of pure carbon metallurgy manufacturing process (PCMP), but lack low-carbon optimization models and strategies for the HCHMP. To address this issue at the early stages, this article first elaborates the HCHMP process and proposes a three-tier design optimization framework: task allocation at the factory level, material-energy-carbon emission optimization at the process level, and low-carbon evolution strategies. Then, the material, energy and carbon emission models of HCHMP were constructed based on process parameters, which were solved by genetic algorithm, grey wolf optimizer, and bald eagle search algorithms. Finally, a case study of HCHMP shows that the carbon emissions can be reduced by 1339.63 kg/t compared with PCMP. In addition, the evolution trend between process parameters and carbon emissions under different crude steel production was explored. Within the scope of the study, carbon emissions will increase with the rise of crude steel yield, while the yield of hydrogen metallurgy routes will decrease. The reason is that the hydrogen metallurgy route adopts electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking, which will lead to large indirect carbon emissions due to the consumption of electricity. This article can provide effective low-carbon production guidance for HCHMP in the iron and steel industry.