Nippon Steel Corporation’s SuperCOURSE50 project achieves test furnace development goal ahead of schedule

This newspaper reported that on December 20, 2024, Nippon Steel officially announced that it had achieved a 43% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions through hydrogen reduction in the 12 cubic meter test furnace of the SuperCOURSE50 project, achieving the development goal of the test furnace ahead of schedule.

In May 2022, Nippon Steel conducted a technical development test of the SuperCOURSE50 project in a 12 cubic meter test furnace at the Kimitsu Plant of East Japan Steel Works. In recent years, the technology has made steady progress. The test results in 2022 confirmed that the blast furnace carbon dioxide emissions reduction reached 22%, and in 2023 it was confirmed that it could reach 33%. In the test from November to December 2024, Nippon Steel confirmed that the carbon dioxide emissions reduction could reach 43%. The use of carbon to reduce iron oxide is an exothermic reaction, while hydrogen reduction is an endothermic reaction, which will cause the temperature in the furnace to drop. The company’s professionals use heated hydrogen to improve the heat balance inside the blast furnace.
It is reported that Nippon Steel will continue to develop technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 50% based on the establishment of hydrogen reduction technology in the test furnace, and accelerate its practical application in large blast furnaces. On February 9, 2023, Nippon Steel announced that it would implement the development of blast furnace hydrogen reduction technology based on hydrogen generated inside the steel plant, and planned to implement it on its No. 2 blast furnace in January 2026.