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SUMMARY ⑥ Korea Iron & Steel Association

Smart Factories: How can factories be ‘smart’? Hydrogen reduction iron&steelmaking:

Also called steel mills of the future, a 'smart mill' self-learns and operates on its own. the steel industry's effort to keep air clean.
All facilities in smart steel mills are
equipped with cameras and sensors,
helping to perform complex tasks To reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their plants, global steelmakers are developing more eco-conscious means of steelmaking,
without the involvement of humans. called ‘hydrogen reduction steelmaking.’
❖ No help needed! Smart steel mills are indeed smarter
As a result, smart factories are
able to produce higher-quality
To melt iron and produce products, a steel mill operates 24/7 under thorough supervision of
products while reducing repetitive
experienced engineers. In the wake of the 4th Industrial Revolution, steel mills have adopted
and demanding manual labor. How can we cut carbon emissions from steel mills?
smart technologies.
To aumomatically control and optimize manufacturing processes, smart steel mills have introduced a In nature, iron is bound to oxygen. In order to separate oxygen from iron, steelmakers use coal, which inevitably emits CO2. Since
series of new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and artificial intelligence (AI). 2018, a South Korean steelmaker has been developing ‘hydrogen reduction iron and steel-making’ technology to replace coal with
As a result, smart mills are able to put out higher-volume and quality products with lower defect rate. hydrogen, an element that binds better with oxygen.

❖ What improvements are observed when a standard steel mill transforms into a smart mill?
Continuous casting
Production plan Ironmaking process Steelmaking process process Rolling process Plating process

“I want to check “What is the furnace “Did the furnace “I have to inspect "I want to be able to “Is there a more Hydrogen reduction steelmaking that uses hydrogen instead of carbon
my order faster” temperature now?” reach the accurate the materials for press the products cost-effective way to
temperature?” defects.” with uniformity and perform coating?” ‘How can we cut carbon emissions from our manufacturing process?’ Steelmakers finally found the answer to this question:
precision”
‘hydrogen reduction steelmaking’ uses hydrogen instead of carbon. They chose hydrogen because oxygen binds well not only with
carbon but also with hydrogen.
People check all A human engineer A human engineer When an abnormality A human engineer After manual control,
orders manually. goes to the furnace to checks the is detected during manually a human engineer
manually check the temperature. When a mandatory inspection, examines the flatness. measures the volume Carbon reduction steelmaking Hydrogen reduction steelmaking
standard temperature problem is detected, the material is pulled of metal used to form
mills every two hours. the engineer halts out. a layer of the outer
operation. coat.

The mill forecasts The IoT camera The mill self-monitors Automatic The program After self-learning,
smart future orders and automatically temperature notifications are precisely controls the facility controls
mills makes judgement monitors the furnace and molten steel issued when process the rolling process the volume of metal Iron ore Coal (C) Iron (Fe) Carbon Iron ore Hydrogen Iron (Fe) Water
dioxide
(Fe2O3)
(H2O)
(H2)
(Fe2O3)
calls. status. composition error is detected. coat to match the (CO3)
in real time. width, thickness and
type of steel.
Hydrogen reduction iron and steel-making can reduce carbon dioxide emission. Once applied in a steel mill, hydrogen can be
recycled, helping to preserve the Earth's resources and protect the natural environment.
A piece of A piece of
knowledge knowledge

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