Nippon Steel/Kobe Steel plant to recycle steel mill dust
8 Jun 2010
Tokyo – Nippon Steel Corp. and Kobe Steel Ltd have formed a joint venture to recycle steel mill dust into direct reduced iron (DRI). The JV, called Nittetsu Shinko Metal Refine Co Ltd (NSMR), is to help the partners deal with rising raw materials costs following a sharp rise in steel demand in Asia.
NMSR will construct a direct reduction plant, based on Kobe Steel’s FASTMET process within NipponSteel’s Hirohata Works in Himeji, Japan. Nippon Steel will also use existing dust recycling plants at the works to recycle the steel mill dust.
The byproduct will be sourced from the steelmakers, including alliance partners, located in the Kansai region in western Japan. The partners will also use steel mill dust and iron ore fines from their steel mills as raw materials to recycle iron into DRI and recover zinc.
The DRI will be supplied to Nippon Steel and Kobe Steel, with a portion also going to Sanyo Special Steel Co., Ltd., a group company of Nippon Steel.
In the FASTMET plant, steel mill dust is heated to a high temperature in a doughnut-shaped rotary hearth furnace (RHF) and quickly undergoes reduction to make DRI, which is then formed into hot briquetted iron. At the same time, the zinc in the steel mill dust is recovered.
As the steel mill dust and zinc are effectively recycled, the DRI can be used as an alternative or supplement to scrap and iron ore as the main raw material, and the recycled zinc can reduce the use of zinc ore. Recycling also promotes zero emissions.
The main equipment wil include a rotary hearth furnace, a hot briquette machine, and will provide a treatment capacity of approximately 220ktpa. The project carries an investment tag of about Yen10 billion – for the RHF & related equipment – and is planned to startup in October 2011.
