SHANXI Taihang Mining Co will become China's first company to use coke oven gas as an alternative to natural gas to get reduced iron in industrial production after striking a contract to import Iranian technology yesterday.

Under its contract with Mines and Metals Engineering GmbH, owned by the Iranian government and based in Duesseldorf, Germany, Shanxi Taihang Mining will use world-leading processing technology and equipment to lift its iron productivity and reduce emissions.

Technically termed as direct-reduced iron process, the technology can raise the purity of iron to 98 percent, said Weng Yuqing, chief expert of China's Ministry of Science and Technology.

Traditional blast furnace iron-making, which generates 80 percent of China's total iron and steel output, however, only results in an iron purity of 60-70 percent. "The collaboration will allow Chinese companies to use coke oven gas for the first time to directly reduce iron for industrial purpose," said Weng, also an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering.