Stable production is a fundamental solution for environmental protection.
“Environmental protection and production should not be viewed as opposing forces; they are inherently intertwined,” said Xu Qian, chairman of Baimei Intelligent Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Baimei Intelligent), in an interview with a reporter from China Metallurgical News on July 29. He pointed out that the green transformation of the steel industry needs to break away from the traditional understanding that environmental protection investment is a cost burden, and leverage digital technologies such as "three-stream integration" (production flow, environmental protection flow, and energy flow) to achieve synergistic efficiency gains between environmental protection and production.
Technological Innovation: From "End-of-Pipe Treatment" to "Source Reduction"
"Beijing's PM2.5 concentration has dropped to around 35 micrograms per cubic meter, and there are more and more blue sky days. A significant portion of this is due to environmental protection upgrades in the steel industry," said Xu Qian. Baimei Intelligent's developed "three-stream integration" intelligent decision-making system, EcoTOM, abandons the old approach of "polluting first, then treating." By integrating production flow, environmental protection flow, and energy flow data, it constructs a dynamic optimization model, considering the mutual influence of energy use, carbon emissions, and pollution control from beat control, optimization, and monitoring. Leveraging the beat control of the energy-carbon-pollution synergy interface improves connection efficiency; real-time tracking of energy consumption and emission data nodes ensures the stability of the control data base; optimizing the thermal reaction efficiency of the process itself, through AI precise control, achieves energy saving and carbon reduction, truly realizing "source governance."
Practical Results: A Win-Win for Environmental Protection and Efficiency
It is understood that, As of now, a total of 197 steel companies nationwide have completed or partially completed ultra-low emission transformation. Among them, 147 companies with a production capacity of 601 million tons have completed full-process ultra-low emission transformation, and 50 companies with a production capacity of 181 million tons have completed partial ultra-low emission transformation. "Under the traditional environmental protection model, production and emission reduction are often at odds," Xu Qian stated frankly. Steel companies generally face problems such as low efficiency of environmental protection facilities and serious energy waste. The dynamic optimization model built by "three-stream integration" helps steel companies achieve: a 10%~15% reduction in comprehensive energy consumption, synergistic reduction of carbon emissions and pollutants, a 30% reduction in the payback period of technological transformation investment, and an increase in comprehensive energy saving and revenue per ton of steel by 10~30 yuan.
Looking to the future, Xu Qian stated that Baimei Intelligent will actively respond to the national "dual carbon" goals, actively explore synergistic pathways for pollution reduction and carbon reduction, continuously deepen the application of digital technologies, build an intelligent management system, and continue to contribute to the production and environmental protection of steel enterprises.
