Sichuan DaZhou Iron & Steel Group Co., Ltd. (“DaZhou Steel”) recently was approved a 16-million RMB loan under the framework of IFC’s China Utility-based Energy Efficiency Finance Program (CHUEE). This 3-year energy efficiency loan will be provided by the Chongqing Branch of Industrial Bank, the initial bank partner of IFC CHUEE program. The project is to fund the borrower’s TRT Energy Saving &Technological Upgrading Project. Thanks to the financial and environmental benefits of this project, DaZhou Steel is expected to spend 12.33 million RMB less annually on the power purchased from state grid and reduce its CO2 emission by 335,000 tons in ten years time. This is IFC CHUEE’s first energy efficiency loan issued to Sichuan province and DaZhou Steel has hence become the first metallurgical company in China to receive IFC’s energy efficiency finance.
In 2005, DaZhou Steel conducted a series of technological improvement projects leading to significant gains in its productivity and production capacity. The company was nominated as one of the first 20 recycling economy pilot companies in Sichuan province in 2006. Being an important metallurgical works in Sichuan, and the largest industrial company and taxpayer in Dazhou city, the company attaches importance to recycling and reuse of resources. It installed and started using two sets of 5MW waste heat power generators in 2006.
To further its efforts in enhancing resources use efficiency and meet its objectives for energy saving and emission reduction, DaZhou Steel plans to install a 6MW TRT system with the financing support of IFC CHUEE loan. According to its schedule, the project will start operation by the end of 2007.
Under this project, the pressure of flue gas from a blast furnace in the steel plant will be used to drive the 6 MW TRT system to generate power, reducing energy consumption and production cost as well as noise pollution from metallurgical operation. The project requires no extra land and has an annual power generation capacity of 30.888 GWh and a power supply capacity of 30.27 GWh each year. All the power generated will be used by the company itself, helping realize cost reduction of RMB12.33 million in power purchasing. Considering the amount of electricity generated through the TRT system, every year this project saves 11,765 tons of coal equivalent, reduces CO2 emission by 33,500 tons, cinders by 2500 tons, SO2 by 400 tons and soot by 3000 tons. It is favorable both financially and environmentally.
