In 2023, China’s crude steel production amount reached 1.019 billion tons, and the energy consumption of China’s steel industry amount reached 561 million tons of coal. China’s steel industry, with its dominant reliance on coal for energy and the primary use of blast furnaces and converters in production processes, as well as its massive output, has become the main field for achieving China’s “carbon peaking” and “carbon neutrality” goals. Firstly, this article summarizes the current production status of the steel industry and the situation of carbon emissions in the steel industry. Secondly, it discusses the dual-carbon policies based on the national and steel industry levels and outlines the future directions for China’s steel industry. Subsequently, it analyzes the current state of research and application of mature and emerging low-carbon technology in China’s steel industry and details the low-carbon plans of China’s steel companies using the low-carbon technology roadmaps of two representative steel companies as examples. Finally, the article gives policy suggestions for the further carbon reduction of China’s steel industry. The purpose of this paper is to show the efforts and contributions of China’s steel industry to the early realization of its “carbon peaking” and “carbon neutrality” goals.

Direct reduction of iron ore with H₂ has become an alternative technology for iron production that reduces pollutant emissions. The reduction kinetics of iron ore fines in an H₂ atmosphere under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions were studied by thermogravimetric analysis. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were used to measure the mineral composition and analyse the morphology of the reduced fines, respectively. In the isothermal reduction experiment, it was found that the final reduction time was shorter, the higher the temperature, and the metallic iron particles formed a dense matrix structure. It is likely that the initial stages reduction process is the result of a combination of gaseous diffusion and interfacial chemical reaction mechanisms, and that the later stages a combination of interfacial chemical reaction and solid diffusion is the rate control mechanism. In the non-isothermal experiment, the heating rate had a significant effect on the reaction rate. The results show that the non-isothermal reduction proceeded through three stages: mixing control model, two-dimensional diffusion, and three-dimensional diffusion.

High-phosphorus iron ore is not used because of its high phosphorus content. Phosphorus is mainly present in fluorapatite. In this work, the phosphorus vaporization that occurs during the carbothermal reduction of fluorapatite was investigated. The thermodynamic principle of vaporization, which removes phosphorus during carbothermal reduction, was elucidated, and the mineral evolution of high-phosphorus iron ore was summarized. The results demonstrate that it was difficult to reduce fluorapatite when only carbon was added. When Al₂O₃, SiO₂, and Fe₂O₃ were added, the dephosphorization of fluorapatite was stimulated, and the dephosphorization temperature decreased. A phosphorus-containing gas was generated during this process. SiO₂ had the strongest effect on the dephosphorization of fluorapatite. The carbothermal reduction rate of fluorapatite accelerated when SiO₂, Al₂O₃, and Fe₂O₃ were concurrently added. These oxides were advantageous for vaporization dephosphorization. The gas-phase volatiles were detected through gas-phase mass spectrometry. The volatiles were primarily P₂ or PO. The temperature range of 1000–1100 °C was the optimum for vaporization dephosphorization. This article provides a theoretical and experimental basis for the development and utilization of high-phosphorus iron ore through vaporization dephosphorization.