China launches first full-conversion coke oven gas project, pioneering green steel breakthrough

China's first project achieving 100-percent conversion of coke oven gas to clean energy has come online in Lingyuan City, Liaoning Province in the northeast, marking a major leap forward in the green development of the steel industry.

Coke oven gas is one of the industrial tail gases produced in steelmaking and has historically suffered from low comprehensive utilization rates.

At Anji New Energy Technology Company, a newly built energy facility, technicians used next-generation separation and synthesis technologies to convert the coke oven gas fully into liquefied natural gas (LNG), liquid ammonia, and hydrogen.

"The exhaust gas is being transformed into three valuable resources. The LNG is what we call the cleanest fossil fuel. Liquid ammonia is serving as a cornerstone industrial raw material. Hydrogen represents the most promising clean energy. The process has achieved 100 percent conversion efficiency," said Cai Xinbo, project manager of Anji New Energy Technology Company.

Staff members of the company said they are using a special type of molecular sieve to separate different gases in the exhaust.

"Our core technology involves this new-type molecular sieve. As the exhaust gas passes through the molecular sieve, certain impurities are absorbed, allowing only hydrogen to permeate through its micropores. This process generates high-purity hydrogen, which can be applied in high-precision industries such as electronics manufacturing, aerospace and advanced chemical sectors," said Wang Wenge, an engineer at the company.

China is the world's largest coke producer, generating around 210 billion cubic meters of coke oven gas annually. If 30 percent of the volume is comprehensively utilized, it will cut the steel industry's carbon emissions by roughly 45 million tons per year, while creating over 100 billion yuan in additional industrial output value and driving innovative development in the traditional steel sector, analysts said.

The United Kingdom's economy contracted in April, with the gross domestic product (GDP) falling 0.1 percent month on month after growing 0.3 percent in March, according to data released Friday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The main driver of the negative growth was cited as a 0.2 percent contraction in services.

According to the ONS, one of the biggest contributors to the decline in services was a 9.1 percent fall in sports, amusement and recreation activities -- the largest negative contribution from a single industry to services output and real GDP growth.

Some of the sector's decline was attributed to the war in the Middle East, as the cancellation of various sporting events in the Middle East affected the output of U.K.-based companies, said the ONS.