message

We will challenge the development of innovative technologies aimed at reducing CO₂ emissions.

Steel supports our lives as an excellent material that constitutes social infrastructure and durable consumer goods, such as buildings, railroads, cars, and home appliances. The steel industry, which supplies the materials for the products that form the foundation of society, plays a role as the foundation of all industries. On the other hand, since iron is made by reducing iron ore with carbon (coal, etc.), the production process inevitably generates CO₂. In order to achieve carbon neutrality in the steel industry, it is necessary to develop innovative technology that will radically change this iron manufacturing method, which has continued for about 300 years since before the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century.

Since fiscal 2008, Japan has been promoting the development of blast furnace hydrogen reduction technology under the COURSE50 project (supported by NEDO), and has verified for the first time in the world that it is possible to reduce CO₂ emissions by 10% in the experimental blast furnace. Based on the result, from fiscal 2021, we have been promoting a multitrack technical development project that includes the blast furnace process, the direct reduction ironmaking process, and the electric furnace process as part of “the Green Innovation Fund Project / Hydrogen Utilization in Iron and Steelmaking Processes” in order to further reduce CO₂ emissions.

Steel is a strong, versatile material with excellent recyclability. Moreover, the decarbonization of the Japanese steel industry, which produces and supplies high-grade steel stably and in large quantities, is extremely important from the perspective of realizing carbon neutrality throughout Japan and also from the perspective of supporting the industrial competitiveness of our country. This is the first and extremely difficult challenge in history that no one in the world has succeeded in, but we would like to promote this project with all-Japan cooperation and realize the development of innovative technology.