Mitsubishi Heavy to Build Biggest Zero-Carbon Steel Plant
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:
Mitsubishi Heavy to build biggest zero-carbon steel plant:
TOKYO -- Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will soon complete in Austria the world's largest steel plant capable of attaining net-zero carbon dioxide emissions.
Mitsubishi Heavy, through a British unit, is constructing the pilot plant at a complex of Austrian steelmaker Voestalpine. Trial operation is slated to begin in 2021.
The plant will use hydrogen instead of coal in the reduction process for iron ore. The next-generation equipment will produce 250,000 tons of steel product a year.
[...] Mitsubishi Heavy's plant adopts a process called direct reduced iron, or DRI. New blast furnaces require trillions of yen (1 trillion yen equals $9.6 billion) in investment. Although DRI equipment produces less steel, the investment is estimated at less than half of blast furnaces.
For DRI to attain the same level of cost-competitiveness as blast furnaces, low-cost hydrogen will be key. Market costs for hydrogen now stand at around 100 yen per normal cu. meter, estimates the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
[...] Germany's SMS, the world's leading supplier of steelmaking equipment, is pursuing the hydrogen-fueled steelmaking process, along with runner-up Danieli of Italy. Among steelmakers, Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal plans to build a German pilot hydrogen steel plant in 2021. Competitors such as Germany's Thyssenkrupp and Salzgitter are investing in DRI.
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