HC Water Industry Network "Environmental protection is a catalyst for companies to achieve leapfrogging, and it is also the most important tool for reducing business risks." Lin Xiao, an associate researcher at the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out.

Li Xinchuang, vice chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association, president and party secretary of the Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute, also said, "No matter how the society progresses, steel materials will still be the most important and most widely used structural materials and functional materials. The steel industry The sustainable development of China cannot avoid the barrier of environmental protection. At present, even for companies with relatively high technical levels, pollution control costs reach 150 to 200 yuan per ton of steel, accounting for 6% to 8% of the total production cost."

Experts emphasized that the sustainable development of iron and steel enterprises, minimizing overall costs and meeting the latest environmental emission standards are indispensable, and this requires pollution control based on the entire life cycle, but also inseparable from technological innovation.

"Nine Chemicals Synergy" promotes industry upgrading

Total energy, energy consumption, pollution discharge permit system, etc. can be used as the starting point for green and low-carbon development

In recent years, steel has become a hot topic. Overcapacity, serious pollution, price fluctuations, etc. always attract attention. Everyone is asking: What happened to steel?

"Steel and the economy are inseparable. The rapid economic development has brought huge development dividends to China's steel industry, and technological progress has promoted the take-off of the steel industry." Li Xinchuang believes that with the slowdown of economic development, it will be a long time in the future. The steel industry can no longer grow rapidly, and will enter a high-level hovering stage.

The importance of steel in the national economy is self-evident. Moreover, some cities in our country are "born from steel", and the steel industry and cities have become a highly integrated whole. In the future, where is the way out for steel? Li Xinchuang's answer is "Nine Chemicals Synergy". "We must reshape the value chain of steel and make the industry develop in an orderly manner through green and orderly; through quality, standardization, differentiation, service, diversification, and intelligence, we will continue to enhance the competitiveness of the industry. At the same time, Encourage qualified enterprises to internationalize and actively go global."

It should be said that whether a company can achieve sustainable development depends not only on whether it is profitable, but also on whether the relationship between the company and the surrounding environment is harmonious. "Now, the steel industry is under great pressure, and environmental protection has become an important part of restricting the sustainable development of the steel industry." Cao Hongbin revealed a set of data: At present, even for companies with relatively high technical levels, the consumption of water per ton of steel has reached 3 tons. The energy consumption per ton of steel is about 580 kilograms of standard coal, and the pollution control cost reaches 150 to 200 yuan per ton of steel, accounting for 6% to 8% of the total production cost.

Li Xinchuang said: “Iron and steel enterprises are facing the pressure of total energy and energy consumption, and the implementation of the pollution permit system also requires changes to the past environmental management system. This is an important starting point for enterprises to promote green and low-carbon development.”

Combine environmental protection and the whole production process

Environmental protection is not only a matter of environmental protection, to promote the improvement of the entire production process and system optimization

After years of environmental protection transformation and pollution control, some conventional pollutants in the iron and steel industry, such as COD and SO2, have been well controlled, and now they are all pollutants that are difficult to degrade, have relatively low concentrations, and are relatively toxic. The cost of treatment is higher. "To support the sustainable development of steel enterprises, minimizing overall costs and meeting the latest environmental emission standards are indispensable. Low-cost system control of steel water pollution requires pollution control based on the entire life cycle." Cao Hongbin said.

"We do not advocate that if environmental protection does not meet the standards, add a device at the end. Because environmental protection requirements are becoming more and more stringent, the corporate governance process will become longer and longer." Lin Xiao, an associate researcher at the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, told reporters that Environmental protection and the entire production process are better integrated. In this way, the production cost may increase by one yuan, and the environmental protection cost may be reduced by two yuan. It is still cost-effective when combined. "So, environmental protection is not only an environmental protection matter, it needs to promote the improvement of the entire production process and system optimization."

Lin Xiao said that similar practices have achieved significant results in the non-ferrous industry. For materials processing companies, all raw materials are purchased with money, and pollutants are generated from the raw materials. The company has to spend money to buy raw materials and also spend money to deal with pollutants, which is equivalent to spending two money. .

"If the unused raw materials and by-products can be recycled, as long as the recycling cost is lower than the material value and environmental protection costs, the company can generate benefits. If the entire process can be optimized, the emission reduction can be achieved at the front end and the back end. The resource utilization of pollutants can solve the embarrassment of relying solely on the harmless treatment of the end." Lin Xiao said.

In addition to the improvement of process technology, Cao Hongbin reminded that enterprises should also pay attention to the improvement of management level, because the level of management level will directly affect the governance effect. The operation effects of the same equipment in different enterprises are very different, and the management level is an important influencing factor, especially the anaerobic biochemical and other links require fine management.

Increased market demand for high-end technology

Environmental protection is a catalyst for companies to achieve a leap. The lack of high-end production capacity has affected the transformation of scientific research results to a certain extent.

Under pressure, the iron and steel industry has eliminated backwardness and made great progress in environmental protection. According to Li Xinchuang, the steel industry eliminated 90 million tons of outdated production capacity during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, and about 140 million tons of outdated production capacity will be resolved during the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period. "We believe that environmental protection is effective. Environmental protection is the catalyst for enterprises to achieve leapfrogging and the most important way to reduce business risks. Enterprises must change their concepts and cannot regard environmental protection as what you want to do. Now it has to become what I want to do. Believe that environmental protection can create value."

Lin Xiao said that in recent years, many steel companies with a lot of environmental debts have been shut down, and the remaining companies have improved their efficiency because of the increase in steel prices. This is an incentive for companies. "Environmental protection costs should be included in the production costs of enterprises. Before, some companies did not pay attention to environmental protection or secretly discharge and leak discharge. Now, under the unified environmental protection requirements, everyone is competing for who has good technology, who manages well, and who meets the emission standards with low cost. , This is correct and fair."

It is precisely because the company attaches great importance to environmental protection that the demand for technology research and development is more targeted, which helps to solve the problem. "Only those who understand the company can know what the company's needs are." Lin Xiao believes that communication between companies and scientific research institutions needs to be strengthened, so as to help scientific research institutions find research and development directions, help companies find external forces that can be used, and reduce ineffective research.

In recent years, the level of scientific research in our country has been greatly improved, but many scientific research results have remained on papers, and the transformation and application are not enough. Lin Xiao analyzed that in China, scientific research institutions generally make research results into process packages, output them to design institutes for designing blueprints, and then hand them over to engineering companies for construction. However, because design institutes and engineering companies are already operating as enterprises, they are more willing to implement projects with low technology content and high output value through simple replication. "It is customary in China to buy 60% of the functions at 1/3 of the price, and is unwilling to buy 150% of the functions at twice the price. This actually makes high-end production capacity missing, which affects the transformation of scientific research results to a certain extent."

However, Lin Xiao is still optimistic about the prospects. He believes that with the tightening of environmental protection standards and industrial structure adjustment requirements, the market's demand for high-end technology will increase. Of course, this is inseparable from the close integration and communication between enterprises and scientific research institutes. Enterprises must run more scientific research institutions, and scientific research institution personnel must also understand the needs of enterprises. "Only when everyone goes a little bit more in every link, the chain can be buckled more tightly."

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Chief Editor: Tong Zhiwei