Co-benefits of Reducing Carbon Emissions in China's Iron and Steel Industry

Global warming and air pollution are of great concerns in China due to the rapid industrialization. Iron and steel industry accounts for the largest industrial source of Greenhouse gases (GHGs) and emits a lot of local air pollutants (NOx, PM10, PM2.5 and SO2). Multiple energy conservation technologies have been promoted by Chinese government to reduce the energy consumption and carbon emissions. Based on the national China-TIMES model, the Base scenario and two carbon constraint scenarios are formulated, to assess the emission reduction potentials and the co-benefit effects for these promoted technologies in the iron and steel industry. The results are as follows: the emissions of CO2 and SO2 will reach the peak in 2015; and the emissions will be 1264 Mt and 2.79 Mt, and then keep decreasing to 244 Mt and 0.43 Mt in 2050, other local air pollutants will keep declining during 2010 similar to 2050. The CO2 reduction potential is about 45.7 Mt similar to 91.6 Mt, in which the coke-making, iron-making and casting processes have the largest contribution to this. The emissions of local air pollutants will be reduced significantly under the two CO2 emission reduction scenarios. The reduction of CO2 has the most significant co-benefit effect on reducing SO2 emissions, but limited co-benefit effect on reducing PM2.5. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.