Advancing DRI product flexibility: New technologies and applications for steelmakers by maximizing operational flexibility of MIDREX® DRI plants

摘要

© 2017 South East Asian Iron and Steel Institute. All rights reserved.Worldwide, there are approximately 70 MIDREX® Plants producing Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) products such cold direct reduced iron (CDRI), hot direct reduced iron (HDRI) and hot briquetted iron (HBI), or a combination of these forms of DRI (figure 1). Over nearly five decades the MIDREX® Process has been in use, product carbon levels have varied based on location and use, and in 2015 MIDREX Plants produced MIDREX® DRI Products with carbon levels of approximately 0.5 to 3. Indeed, the MIDREX® Process has the flexibility to produce DRI with controllable and varying amounts of carbon as desired by the plant operator. Recently, Midrex Technologies, Inc. has created a new flexible technology that can increase the carbon content of DRI produced in a MIDREX® Plant up to 4.5 carbon. The name of this patent pending innovative technology is ACT™, which stands Adjustable Carbon Technology. AC™ provides for the MIDREX® DRI Plants to produce the widest range of carbon in DRI Products and can be easily adjusted during operation. The technology can easily be retrofitted to existing plants and is ready for deployment to MIDREX® customers that desire the flexibility to produce a higher carbon DRI/HBI.