There was a signing ceremony for the Tangshan Iron & Steel (Group) Co and the Harsco Group, recently, in Beijing, for an ethanol project for converter gas. This is the world’s first ethanol project to use the converter gas fermentation method, the Hebei Economic Daily reported on Tuesday.

The agreement calls for cooperation on an ethanol fuel project for 650,000 cubic meters of converter gas per day, using a converter gas fermentation method. When it is operational, it will be able to produce more than 30,000 tons of ethanol per year.

Yu Yong, the president of Tangshan Iron & Steel, described it as the beginning of a biological technology application in the iron and steel industry. It is also the first time for the company to cooperate with a foreign company on such a high level and it is expected to help increase the efficiency of resources and energy and promote new energy developments, Yu added.

Ethanol is considered a type of clean, low-carbon-output energy that can partly replace gasoline. The fermentation method of producing ethanol is a new way to re-use converter gas, and is cleaner and more efficient.