8th International Congress on Science and Technology of Ironmaking - ICSTI 2018

The FINEX® process has been developed since 1992, starting from lab scale tests to constructing a pilot, a demo and two industrial plants consecutively in Pohang Works, South Korea. It has been 11 years since the first 1.5 MTPA commercial plant, #2 FINEX, began operating. The cumulative production of #2 FINEX achieved 14 million tons of hot metal and the availability in 2017 hit the record high with 96.6%. During this period, significant improvements were carried out by verifying the long-term cokeless operations, adapting a heat recovery system, increasing the process efficiency of the hot compacted iron system, changing binders for coal briquettes and etc. A minor revamping was performed during the 1st half of 2018 to apply advanced structures in the fluidized bed reactors and the reduction shaft. The inspection results during the revamping period of #2 FINEX will be great source for the next operation and design.