TECNORED IRONMAKING PROCESS The Present and The Future

By: José Henrique Noldin Jr; Marcos Contrucci.– Tecno-Logos S/A Tel # 55 21 2294 1723

e-mail jjr@tecnored.com.br

Ian J. Cox; Koen Meijer - Danieli Corus Inc Tel # 716 907 4967 or 31 251 49962

e-mail ian.cox@danieli-corus.com

Key Words: Tecnored, ironmaking, self-reducing agglomerates, coal based smelting

INTRODUCTION

The Tecnored Process The Tecnored Process is a new approach to ironmaking technology that uses cold bonded self reducing agglomerates (pellets or briquettes), produced from iron ore fines or iron bearing residues, plus fines of pet coke, coal, charcoal, or carbon bearing residues1. These materials, mixed with fluxing and binding agents, are agglomerated and cured on a dryer, producing briquettes/pellets that have sufficient strength for the physical and metallurgical demands of the Tecnored process. The agglomerates produced are smelted in a shaft furnace of high efficiency and unique design, the Tecnored furnace that due to its low stack height uses low cost solid fuels, such as green petroleum coke, coal or semi cokes (Figure 1).

Figure 1 – Cross section of the Tecnored furnace

The Tecnored process uses a combination of hot and cold blast and requires no additional oxygen. It eliminates the need for coke plants, sinter plants, and tonnage oxygen plants. Hence, the process has much lower operating and investment costs than those of traditional ironmaking routes. The Tecnored furnace may also be used for the melting of metallic charges, including loose turnings and borings and hard to melt scrap at a lower melting cost than in conventional processes, supplying hot metal to electric steel shops, reducing power consumption and increasing productivity. The conversion of low met DRI into liquid pig iron, promoting final reduction of oxides and slagging off the gangue contained in DRI, is also a highly cost effective application for productivity increase and cost reduction in DRI based electric steel shops. The successful completion of the pilot plant stage of the development of the Tecnored process has paved the way for the construction of industrial scale facilities for both virgin iron units’ plants, as well as plants for recycling mining and steel mill wastes. The operation of a full scale modular slice of the industrial furnace proved to be a novel and very beneficial method to develop this metallurgical process and the fundamental furnace design parameters required for the first operating facility during the course of the development over 100 separate operating test runs were made producing in excess of 1000 tons of high quality “blast furnace” type hot metal. Figure 2 shows the modular furnace during tapping.

Figure 2 – Hot metal tapping at the modular furnace

INDUSTRIAL DEMONSTRATION PLANT (IDP) STATUS

Design The furnace has been designed for a daily production of 250 tons of pig iron. The principal intent of the IDP is, initially, to demonstrate viability of the design of the furnace and the process for a given period and then expand the annual production to supply 100% of the cold pig iron used in Villares’s electric arc furnace (EAF). Therefore, based on the modular nature of the process, the layout of the plant has already been planned to allow further expansion of the installed capacity, by simply increasing the length of the furnace and replicating the peripherals whenever (Figure 3). A feasibility study of the modifications required in the melt shop to transfer hot metal from the Tecnored furnace straight to the EAF shall be done in due course, targeting to boost the crude steel production besides lowering the kWh per ton of steel produced. Still on the design, the ancillary equipment is based on typical Brasilian mini blast furnace operations, the principal advantages of this approach being, cost control and the ability to source all major components in Brazil.

Figure 3 – Schematic view of the furnace expansion (upper view) The site selected to build the IDP is an area located adjacent to the largest Aços Villares’s engineering steel plant, in the city of Pindamonhangaba, state of São Paulo, Brazil. Figure 4 shows the site location.

Figure 4 – Site location Fabrication and preassembly The furnace and all ancillary equipment have been completely fabricated in Brazil, by strategic partners of Tecno-Logos (solely owner of Tecnored). In the preassembly process the furnace has been completely assembled and then broken down into four major sub-assemblies for shipment to the field, leaving only a minimum of welds to be made on site.

TECNOREDPLANT SITE

Aços Villares’ Plant

IDP Furnace

Future Expansion

Tuyeres

Figures 5 to 10 show some pictures of the main equipment.

Figure 5 - Blowers Figure 6 – Serpentines of the air pre-heater

Figure 8 – Charging system parts

Figure 7 - Mixer

Mixer

Figure 9 – Tecnored furnace

Figure 10 – Tecnored furnace Construction The start of construction has been delayed by the stringent environmental process required by the state of Sao Paulo, it is anticipated that once the final permit has been granted that construction will be completed in a relatively short period of time, 120 days, largely due to the decision to take advantage of the environmental permit delay and preassemble all major components. Start-up Start-up is currently scheduled for late July 2006.

FOCUS OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

Raw materials One of the major focuses of future developments shall be the continuous improvement of non-conventional raw material usage, individually or in different blends. The idea is to further increase the portfolio of suitable iron and carbon units, defining limits of utilization, modifications required in the equipment, therefore, optimizing the flexibility of the technology. For instance, studies have been made in the last few months on briquette properties when using ore mine tailings as the primary Fe source with different reductants, binders and fluxes. Large deposits of such materials are available in mining countries with additional tailings being created every day. These materials are generally high in Fe content, typically >60% with no current use in the industry, this leads to very sound economic advantages transforming what is currently a waste product of minimal value into hot metal with blast furnace iron like properties. Additionally, new sources of solid fuels shall be tested, individually or in blends, in the industrial furnace after being pre-approved in the Tecnored furnace simulator, as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11 – Rank of coals tested in the pilot plant and/or in the process simulator Biomass fuels During the pilot plant development stage charcoal fines generated in the production of charcoal for the mini BF market in Brazil, have been extensively used as reductant in the pellets/briquettes with very good behavior. The target now is to develop the “biomass” version of the technology by using fines of other types of fast growing biomasses (carbonized grass, corn-cobs, etc) as reductant and chips or briquettes as fuel. Biomass use further improves the sound economic advantages of the Tecnored process due to the availability of carbon credits to the operator and dismissal of use of expensive fossil fuels. Brazil while not being a coal producer is very rich in biomass options for fuels. Tests are scheduled using a variety of materials including grass based

CARBON / ENERGY CONTENT

LOW RANK COALS48%

HARD COALS52%

LIGNITE45 – 50% FC

6 – 9 Ash

SUB-BITUMINOUS47 – 57% FC2 – 13 Ash

BITUMINOUS54 – 80% FC3 – 10 Ash

ANTHRACITE74 – 90% FC8 – 14 Ash

Steam Coal Coking Coal

MOISTURE CONTENT

Pre-approved in the pilot plant and/or furnace simulator

Reactor design The next phase of furnace development will be focused around a new pilot furnace to be constructed as a first priority after the start-up of the IDP. The plan is intended to evaluate whether the process will benefit from being operated at different operational conditions not tested in the first pilot plant, e.g. increased pressure, and how to modify the design of the furnace to accommodate these changes. In addition, continued development and understanding of the process is expected to contribute to the future development of other Tecnored based processes, keeping the competitiveness of the technology. Ferro manganese / Ilmenite A lot of interest has been expressed in the use of both ferromanganese ore fines and ilmenite fines; this will be one of the many programs that will be tested once the pilot furnace is complete. Other developments The construction of a new pilot plant shall permit, besides the continuous improvement of the current Tecnored technologies, the development of new versions of the process, already identified but not discussed for obvious reasons.

POTENTIAL MARKETS Once the first industrial furnace is continuously operating, new projects shall be announced in different locations. Many of these projects are already in the feasibility studies phase, allowing immediate implementation soon after the performance approval of the IDP furnace. The overall concept is to produce low cost iron in strategic locations where raw materials are available and ship the product to end-users worldwide, for direct use or in the liquid form after remelting in a Tecnored melter.

Figure 12 – Iron production in selected sites

Tecnored Smelter at Strategic Locations…

BRAZIL

AUSTRALIASOUTH AFRICA

INDIA

USA

RUSSIA

CHINA

BRAZIL

AUSTRALIASOUTH AFRICA

INDIA

USA

RUSSIA

CHINA

Figure 13 – Tecnored iron used by steelmakers worldwide

CONCLUSIONS The start-up of the IDP is currently scheduled for July 2006. This first industrial plant of Tecnored (IDP) shall demonstrate not only the process itself but also the possibility of steelmakers investing in ironmaking facilities on a small scale and in a phased approach. In addition, after the successful operation of this plant, a new pilot plant will be built on a high priority where new versions of the technology will be developed, different raw materials can be tested and changes can be simulated, among a number of other possibilities. We look forward to presenting the first results and an update plan of the future developments in the near future.

REFERENCES 1. M. Contrucci, “Tecnored Process – Industrial Plant in Construction,” Beyond the blast furnace, Atlanta, USA, June 2000. 2. J. C. D’Abreu; J. H. Noldin Jr.; K. M. Martins; D. R. Araujo, “Kinetics and Morphological Assessment of Self-Reducing

Briquettes of Hematite and Magnetite Ores,” ScanMet-II – 2nd International Conference on Process Development in Iron and Steelmaking, Luleå, Sweden, 2004.

3. J. H. Noldin Jr.; J. C. D’Abreu; H. M. Kohler; R. N. Rodrigues Filho; K. M. Martins, “A Kinetic Study of a Self-Reducing

Briquette Aiming the New Ironmaking Technologies,” COM 2002 – 41st Conference of Metallurgists, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 2002

4. J. H. Noldin Jr.; J. C. D’Abreu; K. M. Martins, “Kinetics and Morphological Studies of a Carbon Composite Briquette Aiming the

Emergent Ironmaking Technologies,” 132nd TMS Annual Meeting - Yazawa International Symposium, San Diego, CA, USA, March 2003.

5. C. Takano; M. B. Mourão; J. C. D’Abreu; J. H. Noldin Jr., “Physical and Chemical Behavior of Self-Reducing Agglomerates,”.

International Workshop on Science and Technology of Ironmaking, Japan, 2003. 6. J. H. Noldin Jr.; M. A. Contrucci; J. C. D’Abreu; K. Meijer, “Tecnored Process - Low Cost Pig Iron Production,” Scrap Substitutes

and Alternative Ironmaking IV, Baltimore, MD, USA, October 2004.

… exporting iron to end-users worldwide

7. J. C. D’Abreu; H. M. Kohler; J. H. Noldin Jr., “Reduction Simulation of a Descending Self-Reducing Pellet in the Upper Shaft of

the Tecnored Furnace,” 5th Japan-Brazil Symposium on Dust Processing-Energy-Environment in Metallurgical Industries, Vitória, ES, Brazil, September 2004.

8. J. H. Noldin Jr.; M. A. G. Bentes; J. C. D’Abreu; L. A. Rossi; A. B. Leite, “Recycling of CST By-Products by Tecnored

Ironmaking,” 2nd International Meeting on Ironmaking – Environment and wastes recycling session, Vitória, ES, Brazil, September 2004

9. J. H. Noldin Jr.; M. A. Contrucci; J. C. D’Abreu; N. Jacomini, “Fuel Flexibility in the Tecnored Process,” 2nd International

Meeting on Ironmaking – Environment and wastes recycling session, Vitória, ES, Brazil, September 2004 10. M A Contrucci; P C Costa; E Marcheze; J H Noldin, Jr, J C D’Abreu, T Cellissen; I J. Cox; K Meijer, ” TECNORED – The First

Full Scale Furnace” AIST,, Charlotte, NC USA, May 2005