Paul Wurth wins contract for Rogesa Blast Furnace modification

ROGESA Roheisengesellschaft Saar mbH (ROGESA), a joint subsidiary of both companies AG der Dillinger Hüttenwerke (Dillinger) and Saarstahl AG, has awarded Paul Wurth with the order to design and supply coke oven gas injection systems for the company’s blast furnaces No. 4 and No. 5 located in Dillingen/Saar, Germany.

With this new technology, coke oven gas will become a metallurgical process gas instead of being used for producing energy at low efficiency level. In its new role, coke oven gas will partially replace both pulverized coal and metallurgical coke as reducing agents in the blast furnace process, thus contributing to reducing the carbon intensity in the blast furnace as well as the carbon footprint of the overall ironmaking operations. ROGESA, Dillinger and Saarstahl consider the application of this technology as a bold step toward the hydrogen based ironmaking of the future.

In preparation of the project, Paul Wurth accompanied the customer in research work and pilot plant trials. Now, the order is being executed on a turn-key basis and includes design and engineering for the two coke oven gas injection sub-plants, supply of technological key items like flow control and check valves, supply and erection of vessels, piping and supporting structure, automation of the plants and integration into the existing process technology and plant configuration. As per the project schedule, coke oven gas injection shall start in summer 2020 at half of the number of hot blast tuyeres of No. 5 blast furnace with the aim to come to permanent injection at all tuyeres of both furnaces by the end of the same year.

Within Paul Wurth’s strategy to come to a carbon neutral primary metallurgy, coke oven gas injection at tuyere level is a part of the company’s portfolio of readily available solutions for stepwise CO2 emission reduction for existing integrated steel plants.

Source: Paul Wurth, Photo: Fotolia