METI to Develop Hydrogen Reducing Iron Making Process

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry tries to secure 1.71 billion yen of budget for steel technology for fiscal 2008 starting April 2008, which is 24.3% lower than fiscal 2007. METI tries to launch 10 years plan to develop new iron making process technology a part of effort by Japanese government to halve global warming gas by 2050. METI starts study for hydrogen based iron making process along with pilot plant of carbon dioxide separation and collection technology. METI increases the budget for the development program for innovative high strength and high performance steel materials when the second year of the program starts development of high performance steel welding and advanced steel forging technology. METI also builds steel structure with advanced structural materials to study earthquake resistance as the final year of new building system development program. METI secures 560 million yen for fiscal 2008 to launch new hydrogen based iron making process development. The technology is to use hydrogen as reducing agent instead of coke. METI also tries to build new carbon dioxide separation pilot plant, which has continuous process and larger than batch plant at Kimitsu works of Nippon Steel.