Contribution to Environmental Protection through
Products, Technologies and Services (6)
New Production Technologies
Midrex Receives Order for Direct Reduction Plant Expansion
Kobe Steel Group
company Midrex Technologies, Inc. received an order from Argentine
steelmaker Acindar A.S. to expand the latter's Midrex Direct Reduction
Plant.
An integrated steelmaker, Acindar operates a Midrex Direct Reduction
Plant, electric furnace, and continuous casting and rolling facilities.
Its main products are wire and bar for construction applications and
welded pipe. In 2004, 1 million of the 1.34 million tons of crude
steel the company produced (26.3% of the total Argentine market) was
made using the direct reduction method.
The main portion of the order consists of increasing the reformer
line, which refines natural gas into higher-quality reduction gas.
The expansion project will increase the production capacity of direct
reduced iron without changes to the shaft furnace. The expansion is
anticipated to commence operations in the spring of 2007, resulting
in a projected 25% increase in direct reduced iron capacity, to 1.25
million tons per year.
MIDREX
Plant
Consists of a shaft furnace for iron ore reduction and reformer for
reduction gas generation. Both iron ore lumps and pellets can be used
as the raw material. Also, the plant recycles the exhaust gas from
the reduction furnace, achieving low fuel consumption and an environmentally
friendly process.
FASTMET
Recycling Process for Steel Mill Dust Receives METI Award
Kobe Steel received the Ministry of Economy,
Trade and Industry's Award for Resource-Recycling Technologies
and Systems for its development of the FASTMET
recycling process for steel mill dust using a rotary hearth
furnace. The award ceremony was held on October 7, 2005.
The FASTMET Process uses pulverized coal as the reducing agent
and makes use of hard-to-recycle materials generated by the
blast furnace such as mill dust, powdered ore, and low-grade
iron ore fines. Pellets made of a mixture of these materials
and pulverized coal are placed in a rotary hearth furnace and
heated at a high temperature to remove impurities, resulting
in high-purity iron units.
The system also recovers secondary steel dust (more than 80%
of which is rough zinc oxide) so that it can be reused. The
FASTMET Process contributes to achieving zero emissions in steel
mills through the full utilization of steel mill dust.
*
The FASTMET Process was developed
jointly by Kobe Steel and its wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary,
Midrex Technologies, Inc. Three FASTMET plants are currently
operating in Japan.
Award ceremony for the Award for Resource-Recycling
Technologies and Systems
Direct Reduction
Plant.
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