Development trends of environmental protection technologies for Chinese steel industry

Chinese steel industry has made significant progress on reducing fresh water consumption and CO2/SO2/COD (chemical oxygen demand)/dust emissions, and improving comprehensive utilization of solid waste. Some steel companies have become topped worldwide. However, due to the large output quantity of crude steel, the whole steel industry is still a huge source of pollutants. At present, environmental protection standards are encountering challenges of lack of technical support, taxation policy and other issues. Steel industry is currently facing enormous environmental pressure. The development trends of environmental protection technologies were studied by summarizing different development stages. To realize the development targets, the industry needs to carry out its research with independent intellectual property rights, develop comprehensive management systems and establish ecological chain with other industries. This can not only raise the level of environmental protection in a broader range, but also improve the energy efficiency of iron and steel plants and increase added value of waste utilization. Finally, 23 environmental protection technologies were proposed and 4 new environmental protection practices were studied.