Global mining major Rio Tinto has commissioned a pilot carbon capture facility at Chinese steelmaker Shougang Group‘s Jingtang plant to capture carbon dioxide directly from blast furnace gas.
The trial installation is engineered to treat up to 3,000 cubic meters of blast furnace gas per hour, with an annual capture capacity of up to 10,000 metric tons of CO2 during the testing phase.
The commissioning fulfills a key milestone under a memorandum of understanding signed by Rio Tinto and Shougang in 2022. The partnership focuses on researching and deploying low-carbon technologies across the ironmaking and steelmaking value chains.
Because iron ore mining companies face increasing Scope 3 emissions pressure, direct technology trials with primary steel producers are becoming a key focus for major producers looking to safeguard long-term demand for high-grade iron ore.
Blast furnaces remain the dominant source of emissions in primary steel production, making point-source carbon capture a crucial transitional technology while direct reduced iron (DRI) and green hydrogen pathways scale up globally.
The trial at the Jingtang base will generate operational data on solvent performance, energy consumption, and gas pre-treatment requirements when processing raw blast furnace off-gases.
By testing carbon capture directly at an operating integrated steel mill, Rio Tinto and Shougang aim to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of scaling commercial CCUS retrofit solutions across China’s massive steel sector.
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