METI to Secure 3.8 B Yen Budget for Steel R&D in F2011

Iron and Steel division of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry secured 3.84 billion yen for steel industry’s research and development budget for fiscal 2011 starting March 2011, which was near original requested 4 billion yen and 1.11 billion yen higher than the budget in fiscal 2010, as a part of budget draft diced by the Cabinet on Friday. The division secures 2.66 billion yen budget for environmental friendly iron making process, COURSE 50. As a part of the process development, hydrogen concentration facilities are introduced at Kimitsu works of Nippon Steel in fiscal 2011 to develop technology of using hydrogen as reducing agent.

Hydrogen reduction at iron making process is a part of COURSE 50 program, which is conduced from fiscal 2008-2017 for around 10 billion yen. The new process is iron ore reduction process with enforced coke oven gas with concentration of hydrogen. The process can reduce coke consumption and carbon dioxide emission. The development program is to build hydrogen concentration facility at Kimitsu and to conduct hydrogen injection test at blast furnace of LKAB in Sweden in fiscal 2011 while the program is to develop CO2 capture, separate and recover technology from blast furnace gas as a part of COURSE 50.

METI secures 700 million yen budget for new iron making process technology development program, Ferro Coke for fiscal 2011 as METI requested as a part of total 4.6 billion yen of the program. The alternative coke of Ferro Coke can accelerate reduction in blast furnace and lower reduction temperature saving around 10% of energy and improving acceptance ability for wider raw materials variation compared with traditional blast furnace operation. With the new technology, integrated steel makers can use low grade coal usage more and can reduce high grade coal consumption rate from current around 80% to around 60.

METI secures 480 million yen budget for the final stage of research and development program to develop fundamental technology for steel materials with enhanced strength and functionality in fiscal 2011. The program is to develop heat controllable welding technology and welding materials in order to improve performance of welded spot of high performance steel including heat resisting steel and low temperature resisting steel. The program is also to develop technology of structure control for higher steel strength and technology of controlled optimum heat treatment for each part in order to contribute to lighter automobile weight.