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Environmental Management
Sustainability Report 2006

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
Award ceremony for the Award for Resource-Recycling Technologies and Systems