New Quality Productive Forces Boost Green Development of Steel Industry

Qinggele Jirigele is chief technical expert with the Research Institute of Technology of Shougang Group Co., Ltd. She has long been engaged in the research and development of technology to boost green manufacturing of steel. 

She has received several awards and titles, including the National May 1 Labor Medal, National March 8th Red-Banner Holder, Woman Pacesetter for Achievements, and Advanced Sci-Tech Worker in Beijing. She was a delegate to the 20th CPC National Congress, held in 2022, and a delegate to the 13th National Women's Congress of China, held in 2023. 

Indispensible Forces

Qinggele was born in 1979, into a herdsman's family, in Alxa Right Banner, in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Her name means "happiness" in the Mongolian language. From the time she was a little girl, Qinggele hoped to go to Beijing. She finally realized her dream in 1998, after she wrote the college-entrance exam and was accepted and enrolled at the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB). She majored in iron and steel metallurgy. 

In 2005, after she graduated with a master's degree from USTB, Qinggele was employed by Shougang Research Institute of Technology. Prior to the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, Shougang Group relocated its manufacturing plant from Beijing's Shijingshan District to an extensive site in Caofeidian (a district administered by Tangshan, a city in North China's Hebei Province). 

As a front-line scientific worker, Qinggele was determined to make full use of the new equipment and techniques provided at Shougang's new site. She vowed to contribute to the advancement of low-carbon, environmentally friendly manufacturing of steel. 

During an interview with Women of China, Qinggele explained her understanding of the significance of developing new quality productive forces within the steel industry. 

"The steel industry is a basic industry that supports the advancement of our national economy. The production of consumptive materials used in architecture, vehicles and infrastructure construction cannot be realized without iron and steel. Iron and steel metallurgy is a field of concern when we deal with problems related to pollutants and carbon emissions. New quality productive forces are driven by scientific and technological innovation. So, this new form of forces is indispensible if we want to promote the low-carbon and green development of the steel industry, based on raising manufacturing efficiency and quality," Qinggele says. 

Qinggele has led her team in helping develop new quality productive forces, by exploring and innovating new techniques. Her team has made several achievements while researching the pelletizing process of mineral resources used in the manufacturing of iron and steel. 

The team's work has resulted in the reduction of both energy consumption and discharge of pollutants, and the team has succeeded in improving the development of high-iron, low-silicon alkaline pellets, the comprehensive index of which has reached the international-advanced level. 

"Significant improvement in the reduction of carbon emissions, in the steel industry, requires technological exploration and innovation. For example, my team is working on advancing the development of hydrogen metallurgy technology, and the resource utilization of carbon dioxide," Qinggele says. She and her teammates will do their utmost to contribute to the advancement of the low-carbon and high-quality development of steel manufacturing.

Women's Advantages 

Since 2005, Qinggele has worked in the traditionally male-dominated steel industry. The number of women working in the field remains limited, due to the workload and the physically challenging work environment. 

However, women are having more opportunities to demonstrate their advantages in the development of new quality productive forces. "New quality productive forces attach great importance to innovation. For numerous women workers in science and technology, the development of new quality productive forces will definitely provide a broader stage, with many more opportunities, to highlight our advantages," Qinggele says. 

She notes women have several advantages, such as "carefulness, patience, acute insight and concentration." 

If women sci-tech workers keep studying and working hard, they will improve their ability to conduct scientific research, and they will fulfill their value, says Qinggele. Women, especially those who are careful, patient and resilient, will surely demonstrate their wisdom and contribute to the advancement of new quality productive forces, she adds.

Photos from Interviewee

(Women of China English Monthly May 2024)

Editor: Wang Shasha