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Applied innovation key to speeding green steel shift : Timo Haimi
New , and some old , technology will play a major part in decarbonisation drive , Richard Roberts * reports
Metso ’ s DRI Smelting Furnace has come out of many decades of mineral processing and refining research and development
Metso ’ s Timo Haimi is increasingly optimistic about prospects for accelerating the world ’ s green iron and steel revolution , with a couple of key caveats .
The Helsinki-based veteran of global minerals and metals processing player Metso sees government and company mandates and technology advances pushing the 2,000 Mt / y global steel industry onto a carbon-emission reduction highway . The iron and steel sectors combined are said to account for circa-8 % of the world ’ s anthropogenic CO 2 emissions .
Steel-making efficiency improvements , increased use of scrap in production and breakthrough process innovations are seen as keys to the industry ’ s decarbonisation shift .
It ’ s a transition that , as some have said , could shift “ the geography of steel ”. And it certainly opens up significant opportunities for major iron ore exporting nations such as Australia , where Haimi delivered an important address at IMARC in Sydney , Australia , on green iron smelting technology for Australian iron ores and where Metso is working with Rio Tinto on BioIron lowcarbon ironmaking and other projects .
On the process innovation front , BioIron is a pilot-scale initiative aimed at using biomass and microwave energy to produce reduced iron .
Hydrogen-based direct reduced iron , or DRI , is expected to become an important decarbonisation enabler for steelmakers . Direct reduction using natural gas is already producing more than 130 Mt / y of iron .
Depending on where and how hydrogen is being sourced it opens a door to truly green carbon-free steel ,
Timo Haimi is Metso ’ s Senior Manager of Smelting but scaling hydrogen availability and lowering costs are key to acceleration of its use .
Haimi talked in Sydney about Metso ’ s Circored direct reduction process and DRI Smelting Furnace , innovations that have come out of many decades of mineral processing and refining research and development that has produced the copper flash smelter among many other advances .
“ In the case of Circored there has been decades of development already ,” he says .
“ Renewed interest is driving accelerated development which will see the technology being applied to different ore types and in combination with other technologies to deliver scale benefits .
“ The DRI Smelting Furnace ( DRISF ) is based on the same proven technologies that we have been using for decades in multiple smelting projects , but for different metals . We are already processing hundreds of tonnes of feed materials in our smelters .
“ So only the feed material , the DRI , is new for the process , which is why we are doing internal and external pilot test work to prove this process .
“ But compared to other new technologies we are well advanced .
“ The road to a 1 Mt per annum [ DRISF ] plant is not far away .”
Haimi says Australia has potential for massive upscaling of current renewable energy production and green iron is one application for the energy .
“ An obvious route is iron ore reduction using gas – natural gas or hydrogen – to produce DRI ,” he says .
“ Hydrogen production does require a lot of energy and that is preferably going to be from the renewable energy that is coming .
“ The challenge for Australian iron ores is that traditional DRI – and electric arc furnace – steelmaking has a requirement for high-quality DRI with low gangue content . This disadvantages most Australian iron ores . “ The beneficiation teams in the Minerals business of Metso are reporting more and more interest for further beneficiation everywhere … but some of the ores globally just cannot be beneficiated enough , or it cannot be done feasibly .
“ And for these challenging iron ores we come into the picture with our hot beneficiation [ DRISF ] technology .”
Haimi says scaling up hydrogen-fuelled DRI to cut carbon-fuel based blast furnace reduction and then using grid electricity ( powered by more renewables ) in a smelting furnace to melt the DRI to produce green steel can ultimately put a massive dent in the $ 1.4 trillion iron and steel sector ’ s carbon emissions profile .
“ The next step is to scale up this transformation and make available these new technologies that can utilise iron ore with higher gangue amount ,” he says .
“ Otherwise , it can be really problematic to replace the carbon consuming blast furnace , and then more than half of the steel globally cannot be decarbonised .
“ Unless some other technology makes giant leaps in their development .
“ My biggest concerns are the available amount of renewable energy and then also the available capacity of smelting plant suppliers . We are currently operating in a business [ nonferrous and ferroalloys ] that is 100 times smaller than the steel business .
“ Can we , who are already operating in this new technology area , scale up our organisations and capacities quickly enough ?”
In response to this conundrum , Haimi says one example of industry collaborating to solve a global challenge is the BioIron project
“ One of the world ’ s leading mining companies working together with a number of OEMs shows how we can leverage the various capabilities already available ,” he says .
Resourcing Tomorrow is Europe ' s largest and most indepth mining conference dedicated to global sustainability goals . It follows close on the heels of IMARC . It will take place on December 3-5 , at the Business Design Centre in London
* Richard Roberts is Editorial Director at Beacon Events
2 International Mining | NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2024