The Gijón electric furnace will produce green steel in 2025 without having to wait for the DRI plant

2023-07-28 21:32:33

The electric arc hybrid furnace that ArcelorMittal approved this week for the Gijón steel factory will start producing steel in the second half of 2025 using scrap and pre-reduced iron purchased abroad as raw materials. For its start-up, it will not have to wait for the direct iron ore reduction plant (DRI system) using green hydrogen, also planned for Gijón, which despite having public aid of 460 million euros authorized by the European Commission, It has not yet been approved by ArcelorMittal’s investment committee since the company first wants to agree with the Government of Spain on an energy price that makes the project viable.

The partial decarbonization plan of the Asturian steel head – valued at more than 1,000 million euros and announced two years ago by the Mittal family and the presidents of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, and of Asturias, Adrián Barbón – includes the replacement of one of the two blast furnaces in Gijón by a direct iron ore reduction plant and a hybrid electric arc furnace that will be supplied, in a variable proportion according to needs, with the pre-reduced iron manufactured at the DRI plant and with scrap. ArcelorMittal’s investment committee approved on Thursday –as anticipated by the digital edition of LA NUEVA ESPAÑA– the electric arc hybrid furnace project, but for the moment it has not given the final go-ahead to the DRI plant, a more complex project and whose works are expected to last more than two years.

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Before giving the go-ahead to the DRI, ArceloMittal wants to get a commitment from the Government of Spain to lower the energy costs that the plant will have. In addition, the environmental processing –already completed for the electric furnace– and the basic engineering of the project are further behind in the case of the DRI. The chances that this plant can start operating at the end of 2025, as initially anticipated, are remote. The commissioning of the electric furnace has already been delayed from the end of 2024 to the second half of 2025, but it will be able to go into operation without having to wait for the DRI plant.

The electric furnace will be powered by a variable load of scrap and pre-reduced iron, which could be purchased from other external factories and used cold if the DRI plant in Gijón is not available, which will increase production costs. But the design of the furnace will also allow it to consume exclusively scrap metal. With this last solution, there will be a decrease in the high quality of the long steel products that are obtained in Gijón with the current blast furnace-conventional steel mill route, but in exchange the carbon footprint will be considerably reduced and wire rod and rail will be manufactured low emission steel.

In addition, during a transition period that was initially going to be between six months and one year, the new hybrid electric arc furnace will coexist with the current converters of the Gijón steelworks that are fed with the pig iron produced in the blast furnaces, which It will allow, through this alternative route, to maintain the current high quality of the products that require it until the DRI plant is operational and until the approval of the new high value-added products produced from pre-reduced iron and scrap is achieved. such as wire for tires or rail for railway line.

“When the new electric arc furnace comes online, expected in the second half of 2025, the plant will be able to produce high volumes of low carbon steel wire rod and rail, which will place the plant in a position highly competitive, particularly for high value-added products subject to strict carbon footprint criteria for contracts with public administration,” ArcelorMittal sources said.

The new hybrid electric arc furnace will be integrated into the existing steelworks in Gijón, trying to generate as little interference as possible with the current facilities so that, during the transition period, either the new electric furnace or the converters are used, although not simultaneous way.

The new electric furnace will have a production capacity of 1,100,000 t/y of liquid steel and is expected to have an annual scrap consumption of between 730,000 and 900,000 t/y.