Italy-based Tenova, a Techint Group company specialized in innovative solutions for the metals and mining industries, has announced that, together with China-based Sinosteel Engineering & Technology, it has successfully completed the performance test for Chinese steelmaker Baosteel Zhanjiang Iron & Steel Co. Ltd.’s new hydrogen-based ENERGIRON direct reduction (DR) plant. The plant has been designed by Tenova using ENERGIRON, the innovative DRI technology jointly developed by Tenova and Italian plantmaker Danieli, and completed with engineering by Sinosteel.
During the performance test, the plant achieved a milestone production of a total of 21,620 mt of direct reduced iron, after 168 hours of continuous full-load production, with a metallization rate of more than 94 percent and using 70 percent hydrogen-based reducing gas. The new ENERGIRON DR plant, installed in Zhanjiang Economic and Technological Zone, has an annual full production capacity of one million mt, making it the largest and first-of-its-kind hydrogen-based DRI facility in China. It has been additionally designed to capture carbon that can be sold commercially, further reducing the plant’s overall carbon emissions and providing an added revenue stream for plant’s operations.