Recently, Prof. ZUO Haibin, Associate Director of the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallurgy (SKLAM), USTB, was invited by Ms. Efi Fragkou, Director of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) in the United Kingdom, to participate in the Special & Publication Awards held in London and accept the 2023 Williams Award from the association.

IOM3 is one of the world's most influential engineering academic organizations. To promote the sustainable extraction, processing, and use of natural resources, IOM3 is Internationally renowned. The award-winning paper "Review of hydrogen-rich ironmaking technology in blast furnace" by Prof. ZUO Haibin 's research team was published in the well-known metallurgical journal "Ironmaking and Steelmaking" under IOM3, and the paper was co-authored by the corresponding author Prof. ZUO Haibin and Ph.D. student CHEN Yanbiao.

In response to the challenge of global warming, the steel industry is exploring ways to reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption by injecting hydrogen-rich fuel into blast furnaces to replace some of the coke. This paper introduces in detail the application technology of blast furnace injection of different types of hydrogen-rich fuels and discusses the reduction behavior of iron oxides, the soft melting behavior of the charge, the dissolution mechanism of coke, and the changes of blast furnace operation system from the aspects of thermodynamic and kinetic conditions of the reaction. Based on reviewing the hydrogen metallurgy projects in Japan, Europe, and other countries and regions, the development suggestions of hydrogen-rich injection technology in blast furnaces are put forward, which provides reference and ideas for the large-scale application of hydrogen in blast furnaces.

Prof. ZUO Haibin is mainly engaged in the research of low-carbon metallurgical process theory and high-value utilization of inferior coal resources and is committed to the development of a new ironmaking process coupled with hydrogen-rich gas injection, top gas circulation-oxygen blast furnace, and puts forward the technical idea of thermal extraction + graphitization conversion of inferior coal and preparation of high-grade carbon materials. He has undertaken more than 30 projects, such as the National Key R&D Program and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has won many awards, including the International Metallurgical "Willy Korf" Outstanding Youth Award and the First Prize of Metallurgical Science and Technology Award.

Draft: SU Jiayi

Revision: CHENG Mingyuan