Japanese steelmaker Kobe Steel has announced that from April to June this year it successfully demonstrated a technology that can reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent from a large blast furnace (4,844 m³) at its Kakogawa Works.
The key technologies utilized for this demonstration are Midrex HBI manufacturing technology in the engineering business and blast furnace operation technology in the steel business. All of these technologies were developed exclusively by the Kobe Steel Group, but they are also applicable to other companies’ blast furnaces.
In addition, the world’s lowest coke rate (230 kg/tHM) was also achieved in the demonstration test of this technology.
The company stated that it will continue to improve its low-carbon blast furnace operation technologies, including further reducing carbon emissions and lowering carbon reduction costs.