The Hebei Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology in China has recently published the ‘Capacity Replacement Plan for the Transformation, Upgrading, Relocation and Reconstruction Project of Xingtai Iron and Steel Co., Ltd.’ The approval for transformation of technology relates to the three sets of Xing Steel’s HIsmelt non-blast furnace iron-making equipment with an annual production capacity of 3×550,000 tonnes (t).
Using high-phosphorous ore
Many experts have been associated with the promotion and transformation of Molong HIsmelt technology for a long time. After its relocation, it is expected that in 2021 Xinggang’s two-three sets of HIsmelt vessels will start construction.
Once the technology is adopted it is believed that HIsmelt will not only change iron-making in China but also have a long-lasting impact on the steel raw materials market by reducing China’s import dependency.
The ‘New Steel Production Capacity Replacement Measures of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’ will be released shortly. The Jianlong Group’s trusteeship of Xing Steel facilitated the promotion of HIsmelt. Following Jianlong, Hebei Puyang, which took over the company, reorganised Xing Steel.
HIsmelt iron-making technology was developed by iron ore major Rio Tinto in Europe and Australia to solve the problem of direct smelting of fine ore and high phosphate material. Rio Tinto invested a lot of manpower and material resources. However, delay in implementation led to Rio Tinto eventually selling off the technology.
Molong in China’s Shandong province eagerly adopted the process technology and equipment. However, the HIsmelt plant had underestimated the risks involved. On 28 Sep’20 Shandong Molong issued a major equity change announcement transferring all shares of the company to Shouguang Jinxin, an important state-owned capital investment and operation entity in Shouguang City.
After many process adjustments and equipment transformations, Molong had achieved continuous industrial production of HIsmelt in 2017. As of November 30, 2018, Molong HIsmelt’s innovative process created a record of 157 days of continuous and stable production, with cumulative production of more than 800,000 t of molten iron.
The actual production cost was about RMB 2,100 /t. In the future, the production cost of the HIsmelt process can be reduced to RMB 1,700/t after optimising the design and upgrading.
Process technology
Molong’s HIsmelt has become an industrialised smelting reduction process that does not require coke, sintering and pelletising, and has conditions for large-scale upgrade.
As a direct smelting process, the HIsmelt process involves injecting fine iron ore and non-coking coal directly into a molten iron bath, contained within a Smelt Reduction Vessel (SRV), to produce high quality molten pig iron. The excess gas produced during the process is used for power generation and production of DRI.
Both as a potential replacement for the blast furnace and as a new source of low-cost iron units for BOF or EAF steelmaking, HIsmelt offers advantages such as (a) lower operating costs that are in the range of 95% to 65% of the conventional route costs; (b) lower environmental impact, with the technology promising to reduce CO2 emissions per tonne of hot metal by close to 20% compared to the traditional BF route; and (c) energy saving potential, as without the requirement of any raw materials the HIsmelt process uses less energy to produce a tonne of hot metal.
The HIsmelt smelting reduction process uses a metal bath as the primary reaction medium which is unique. A bulk of the smelting of ore takes place via dissolved carbon resulting in a high reaction rate. Direct utilisation of ore fines (-0.6 mm) and non-coking coal fines (-0.3 mm) is possible.
The feed material is directly injected through water-cooled lances into the metal bath. One big advantage is that the process requires no costly oxygen because only preheated air is used. Another advantage is that a variety of coals containing 10% to 38 % of volatile matter can be used. The rate of coal, too, is low (600-620 kg/thm).
The hot metal is low on phosphorous (0.02%-0.05% based on ore of 0.12% phosphorous) and very low silicon off-gas. As the off-gas is not rich there is no need to generate value from it.
Ideal for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei
Analysis by experts shows that in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region where a lot of steelmaking capacity is concentrated, the only way to completely solve the pollution problem by steel enterprises is to promote short-process steelmaking.
However, short-process steelmaking, which is also scrap steelmaking, is still unviable in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region because the cost per ton of steel in the short process is RMB 300-500/t higher than that of the long (read BF-BOF) process. Three factors that restrict viability of short-process electric furnace steelmaking are: electricity costs, scrap prices, and electrodes.
Around 400-500 kWh of electricity is needed per ton of steel. Sichuan province and other regions can develop hydropower, wind power and photovoltaics at low prices. However, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has no advantage in terms of electricity prices, and it is difficult to develop short-flow electric furnace steel.
Moreover, scrap prices are totally determined by market forces. As the proportion of long-process steel companies adding scrap has exceeded 40%, the price of scrap has remained high for a long time. This is beyond the control of short-process steel companies. Moreover, due to the complex composition of ferrous steel, all scrap grades cannot produce value-added special steels.
The HIsmelt smelting reduction technology and equipment eliminates the sintering and coke oven processes, and the total emissions can be reduced by 74% compared to the long process. In addition, HIsmelt can produce high-quality molten iron with a quality that can be regarded as high-purity pig iron.
Therefore, it is imperative to prioritise the development of short-process electric furnace steel in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region through HIsmelt smelting reduction technology and equipment + scrap + electric furnace. Xinggang will be the first to verify this model.
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