The Italian plantmaker Danieli and the Swedish electric industrial heating technology provider Kanthal have announced a strategic partnership that aims to decarbonize direct reduction and blast furnace operations thanks to Prothal® DH technology for electric gas direct-heating. The introduction of this new technology - developed by Kanthal - will reduce carbon emissions in steel and ironmaking, as Prothal® will be able to electrically heat hydrogen, natural gas, and their combination.
Kanthal has already tested Prothal® DH on a pilot scale, but thanks to this partnership with Danieli, it will extend its production on a larger scale, and it could even be applied to Danieli and Tenova’s Energiron plants making the DRI processing zero emissions. The two companies aim to commercialize this product by 2027.
“An electric heating system allows a CO2 reduction of more than 30 percent even in natural gas DRI plants. Thanks to this partnership we’ll express a great potential for a new technology that could further reduce Energiron DR plants’ environmental impact in the path towards a greener steel production,” said Marco Lapasin, vice-president of Danieli Engineering Centro Metallics.