7TH EUROPEAN COKE AND IRONMAKING CONGRESS - ECIC 2016

The use of DRI can help steelmakers facing the more and more tough environmental policies and market competition of modern times. Even better results can be obtained by using high-carbon DRI, a pre-reduced material with minimum 3.5% Carbon content, most of which in iron carbide form. This upgraded quality is the result of specific direct reduction's operating conditions, that are peculiar to the Energiron Zero-Reformer process. Adding high carbon DRI to blast furnaces' feed mix allows to decrease CO2 emissions and at the same time to increase the productivity, without any modification to the design of blast furnaces. Further optimizations to the overall process can be achieved by feeding BFG and/or COG to the direct reduction (DR) plant, so that it will operate in symbiosis with the blast furnace. In those cases in which the CO2 emissions must be decreased to the minimum level technically achievable, the integration of an Energiron direct reduction plant with an electric arc furnace (EAF) will provide the lowest carbon footprint for high-quality steel production. Ezz Rolling Mill opted for this solution in its new facility in Egypt, where the Energiron III plant recently started production. This direct reduction module quickly achieved remarkable performances and reached nominal capacity in less than one month of operation.