(p302) FINEX~R - An old Vision of the Iron and Steel Industry becomes Reality

摘要

Rising energy demand and steadily decreasing quality of raw materials due to the global resource depletion aregreat challenges to the steel production today. The FINEX~R Process has been developed jointly by POSCO, Koreaand Primetals Technologies Austria, to provide the iron making sector with the capability to lower hot metalproduction costs, environmental pollutions and to increase the flexibility in terms of operation and the choice of rawmaterials.FINEX~R is a new technology combining a gas-based reduction in a series of fluidized bed reactors and a reductionsmelting in a melter gasifier. Commenced in April 2007, the first 1.5Mtpa commercial plant has demonstrated thecompetiveness as an alternative iron making route. Another 2.0 Mtpa, third generation FINEX~R (3G) plant wasrecently installed at POSCO, Pohang Works and has been operating satisfactorily since its blow-in in January 2014.Based on the well-proven plant concept, new process features, the highly competitive production costs andenvironmental advantages, the FINEX~R Process can be considered as a competitive alternative to the conventionalblast furnace iron making route.