As the earliest national large-scale scientific and technological enterprise engaged in metallurgical engineering consultation, design, and project contracting in China, MCC Capital Engineering & Research Incorporation Limited (CERI) has provided hundreds of overall planning, consultation and design services for hundreds of domestic iron and steel enterprises over the past decades to fulfill its responsibility as the “national team for metallurgical construction”. Among them, the 4 base projects built for HBIS Group feature advanced technology, outstanding operation, and excellent benefits, becoming "model" and "benchmark" projects that serve iron and steel enterprises with high-end consultation, overall design, and core technologies.

In Laoting County southeast of Tangshan City, Hebei Province, the works of Phase II Project of HBIS Laoting Steel are under construction, showing a thriving scene around Bohai Bay. Laoting Steel is built by CERI for HBIS Group as the new area of HBIS Tangsteel. At the end of 2020, Laoting Steel Phase I Project was completed and put into operation, marking the birth of a world-class modern coastal iron and steel base. 

Leading Design for Structural Transformation 

HBIS Tangsteel New Area Project is a major practice of restructuring Hebei's iron and steel industry and demonstrates HBIS Group's action deployment to firmly implement the new development concept and make every effort to promote high-quality development. With an investment of about RMB 42 billion, the Project will produce 7.32 million tons of iron, 7.47 million tons of steel, and 7.1 million tons of rolled steel annually. The main construction contents include an enclosed mechanized stockyard, 2 x 360m² sintering machines, 2 x 760m² pelletizing belt induration furnaces, 3 x 2,922m³ blast furnaces, 2 x 200-ton BOFs, 3 x 100-ton BOFs, 1 x 2,050mm hot rolling production line, 2 high-speed wire rod production lines, 2 high-speed bar production lines, 1 medium bar production line, and supporting facilities for process dust removal, oxygen production, steel slag treatment, water-granulated slag treatment, water treatment, railway transportation, information-based automation, logistics, waste energy power generation, waste heat recovery, compressed air, desulfurization and denitration, coal gas storage and distribution, power supply system, and other public and auxiliary facilities. 

After receiving the design task, CERI's team focused on the goal of building an "environment-friendly, intelligent and branded" project and carried out in-depth market research to identify the product positioning of high-end and high-quality hot rolled coils for automobiles, pickling and cold rolling deep processed products, and long products of high-quality and special steel. Following the wind vane of continuity, simplification, and compactness of material flow, energy flow, and information flow, CERI's team applies the latest dynamic precision design, integration theory, and process interface technology for steel mills in the project design. It integrates more than 230 cutting-edge new processes and more than 130 green steel manufacturing technologies covering the whole process of feedstock, coking, sintering, pelletizing, blast furnace, BOF and steel rolling, striving to create a world-class modern coastal iron and steel dream factory with environment-friendly equipment, cutting-edge technology, intelligent production line, efficient process, and high-end products. 

Specifically, to build a high-end environment-friendly production line, CERI's team adopted a number of innovative technologies for the first time, such as digital twin plant, intelligent "unmanned" stockyard, new belt induration furnace, high ratio pellet smelting, sintering flue gas circulation, automatic steelmaking with low-cost and efficient BOF, high casting speed and direct rolling process for bar production line, and intelligent full-automatic inspection and testing system. In terms of technological process, CERI's team introduces large-scale equipment and advanced technologies for the Project. All stockyards are intelligent and environment-friendly. The ore stockyard is enclosed and C-shaped, and the coal storage yard is enclosed and in a circular shape with a diameter of 120 meters. The 2 x 360m² sintering machines are synchronously equipped with facilities for desulfurization, denitration, and circulation of sintering flue gas, and the 2 x 760m² pelletizing belt induration furnaces are the largest in China, creating conditions for large-scale smelting of blast furnace pellets. The 3 x 2,922m³ blast furnaces are tailored to the needs of leveraging resource endowments and achieving certain economic benefits, and the 2 x 200t large BOFs and their supporting refining and continuous casting facilities create conditions for low-cost, efficient, and specialized production of clean steel. The 100t BOFs are equipped with high-speed continuous casting facilities, the long profile rolling line adopts direct rolling or hot charging and hot delivery technology, and the equipment technology of the 2,050mm hot rolling and 2,030mm cold rolling production lines has reached the internationally advanced level. 

Itemized Planning for Environmental Protection 

Focusing on the goal of environmental protection, CERI's team makes itemized planning from compliance control, product positioning, and emission reduction technology to create a green model for iron and steel enterprises in China. 

After carefully studying the laws, regulations, and standards of energy conservation and environmental protection in China and Hebei Province, CERI's team first makes the following deployments: the energy consumption of each process should reach the advanced standards at home and abroad; the air pollutants should be lower than the special emission limits, and the amount of pollutants should be controlled from the source to reduce the total organized emission. In addition, advanced environment-friendly equipment is used to control fugitive emission intensity and ensure full recycling of industrial wastewater, reduction and resource utilization of industrial solid wastes, and 100% safe disposal of hazardous wastes. On this basis, green iron and steel products are planned with consideration of environmental protection throughout the whole life cycle. The product positioning of high-strength steel and other green products will contribute to reducing steel consumption by downstream users, extending the service life of steel products, and improving the utilization efficiency of social resources. In addition, CERI's team also builds a green manufacturing process and introduces the most advanced production process and energy-saving and environmental protection technologies to realize energy conservation and emission reduction throughout the whole steel production process, i.e., to produce iron and steel products with minimum consumption and emission. 

Specifically, CERI's team adopts clean transportation methods such as pipelines at mines and belt conveyors at ports to transport raw materials and fuels. For storage of feedstock, all stockyards and silos are enclosed. For the preparation of feedstock, belt induration furnaces are used to make pellets and iron ore powder is sintered to make blocks. For the treatment of flue gas, active coke desulfurization, SCR denitration, and other devices are used. The ironmaking blast furnaces are equipped with equalizing coal gas recovery, high-efficiency hot stoves and other devices, and the blast furnace proper structures are all optimized based on high ratio pellet smelting. Through whole-process source emission reduction and control, the total amount of pollutant discharge can be controlled to a lower level on the basis of realizing ultra-low pollutant discharge. All dedusting dust, desulfurization and denitration products, water-granulated slag from blast furnaces, steelmaking steel slag, and other solid wastes generated by iron and steel enterprises are comprehensively utilized as resources. Industrial wastewater is fully recycled, and urban reclaimed water is used as a supplementary water source to realize the seamless connection between iron and steel enterprises and urban functions. 

Overall Layout v.s. Management and Operation 

CERI's team designs the general layout according to the characteristics of the New Area. It considers the Project's coordination with the city's master plan and fully leverages external conditions of the plant area and advantages of the coastal port. A reasonable and compact overall layout is striven for to reduce land use; a short but fast process and smooth logistics are ensured, while future development is taken into account. 

In view of the Project's urgent want of land at present, the CERI's team applies a new generation of an overall design concept for integrated iron and steel enterprises, fulfilling a compact general layout, smooth production process and definite functional zoning. The design scheme not only fulfills the transportation of raw/auxiliary materials and products but also meets the functional requirements of the production organization of each process and the connection between process interfaces. CERI's team also focuses on energy conservation and environmental protection. Under the condition of maintaining unhindered flows of both materials and energy, the CERI's team maximizes the restriction of the materials' turnaround and detour throughout the process in the steel plants to prevent handling repetition, minimizing time spent, power consumed and unorganized emission. 

As process optimization unceasingly continues, besides both reasonable processes and smooth logistics being fulfilled, the land index in the general layout is 0.53 t/m², which implies a leading position among those iron and steel enterprises at the same level. The general layout design for the Project incorporates the advanced concept on enterprise management and operation. The design separates people flow from goods flow, special logistics from ordinary logistics, and polluted production area from cleaner production area, laying solid foundation for subsequent enterprise management and operation. 

Backed by the cutting-edge design, itemized planning and overall layout of the CERI's team, HBIS Tangsteel has finally realized its dream of building a world-class modern coastal steel base. Since the Project was put into operation, the economic benefits have reached RMB 3.816 billion, consisting of RMB 358 million of benefits from higher energy efficiency, RMB 569 million from an improved process structure, RMB 648 million from enhanced process technologies, and RMB 2.241 billion from more efficient collaborative management. From the perspective of social benefits, a significant year-on-year decrease in the total amount of pollutants is seen, with 125.7 tons of annual dust reduction, 440.0 tons of SO₂ reduction, 628.6 tons of NOx reduction, and 2.96 million tons of total CO₂ emission. By virtue of high-quality operation results, the Project was granted a gold award from the National Quality Engineering Award and the First Prize of the China Metallurgical Science and Technology Award. CERI and HBIS have been working together for a new chapter witnessing iron and steel enterprises' transfer from inland to coastal areas in a new era.