First Hydrogen based ENERGIRON DRI Plant in China

Castellanza – Tenova, a leading company specialized in innovative solutions for the metals and mining industries, has signed a contract with the HBIS Group for the implementation of the Paradigm Project, a High Tech Hydrogen Energy Development and Utilization Plant. The project includes a 600,000 ktpy ENERGIRON DRI plant.

This will be the world’s first DRI production plant powered by hydrogen enriched gas, which will make use of the most advanced, competitive, eco-friendly and reliable technology of the Tenova process portfolio, which includes advanced digital models for equipment and metallurgical behavior prediction.

“This is also an important breakthrough for the Chinese steel industry as it will be the first gas-based DRI plant in China”, stated Stefano Maggiolino, Tenova HYL President & CEO.

The HBIS DRI plant will use make-up gas with approximately a 70% Hydrogen concentration.  Due to the high amount of H2, the HBIS plant will be the greenest DRI plant in the world by producing only 250kg of CO2 per ton of DRI. The carbon dioxide will be selectively recovered and part of it will be reutilized in downstream processes, with a final net emission of just about 125kg of CO2 per ton. The plant is scheduled to begin production by the end of 2021.

The world’s steel industry is looking for smart innovative technologies to reduce its carbon footprint. As a result, Hydrogen is now being used as a replacement for coal in the integrated steelmaking process. The ENERGIRON technology, jointly developed by Tenova and Danieli, is the most feasible high-intensity H2 DR system available and is already designed for extremely low CO2 emissions while processing virgin metallic units.

Source and photo: Tenova