The first utilization project on blast furnace gas with Low Caloric Value officially launched in China On February 8th,2012,which marks the fact Chinese steel industry is able to efficiently take advantage of blast furnace gas become true.

The Hengyang Steel Tube Asset Management Co., Ltd. owned by Hengyang Valin Steel Tube Co. Ltd. (HengGang for short) has formed a partnership with Beijing Peking University Pioneer Technology Co., Ltd. (PIONEER for short). the joint venture of HengGang and PIONEER named Hunan HengGang Baida Pioneer energy technology Co., Ltd. execute the utilization project by their joint efforts. The project has gotten the approval from Hunan Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Hunan Provincial People’s Government, and Environmental Protection Department of Hunan. Design review of the utilization project of blast furnace gas has been completed and the whole project is expected to complete and ready to start up in August, 2012. 

The project relies on PIONEER’s know-how, including Main equipment and the adsorbent. It is indeed a major breakthrough for both steel industry and air separation field to get CO product of 17500 Nm³/h which purity is more than 70% from so large scale blast furnace gas of more than 67000 Nm³/h. When it goes into production, the CO product by purification from blast furnace gas, will supply to heating furnace instead of part of natural gas. It is estimated that the CO product can save about one-third amount of the natural gas for HengGang.

The director of Hunan HengGang Baida Pioneer energy technology Co., Ltd. said, the CO composition of blast furnace gas is very low but N₂ composition is high, and the caloric value of the blast furnace gas is low, therefore, it is quite normal for steel workshop to discharge it directly to the air which is not only  a big waste of resources problem but also cause serious environmental pollution. The low-cost Separation and purification of high-purity CO is always a taugh International problem because of the high composition of N₂. According to the characteristic of blast furnace gas, PIONEER has developed its advanced technology on purification of blast furnace gas successfully,a low-cost solution to separate and purify CO from blast furnace gas has been realized. Currently, there is no report about this kind of technology except PIONEER.