Further Opportunities of Competitiveness Improvements for Direct Reduction Plants

Abstract

Even though the Midrex Process is the most successful direct reduction process in the world, additional improvements are still possible. This paper discusses some of those additional opportunities for improvements of Direct Reduction plants in order to increase the plant competitiveness and/or flexibility. Such plant improvements have either already been implemented in the latest projects or were recently developed by Midrex and/or Primetals Technologies. Some of these plant improvements are: Adjustable Carbon Technology (ACTTM)—Increase of carbon content depending on HBI off-taker/user requirements; Process Water Degasser—Degassing of process water from CO2 to improve water quality and lower operation/maintenance cost; Slurry Treatment by Chamber Filter Presses—Efficient dewatering of slurry from clarifier with low operating and maintenance cost; DRIpaxTM Carbon and Metallization Prediction—Improvement of plant operation by stable product quality; DRIpaxTM DR Plant Expert System—Increased support of operation team. Such improvements have plenty of benefits including reduction of the OPEX costs, increase in oxide to product yield, improve the operation/maintenance, and/or increase the availability/flexibility of a Midrex plant. These improvements can be retrofitted in existing plants or implemented for new direct reduction plants.