With approximately 45 Mpty of steel production capacity, Hebei Iron & Steel Group - HBIS is the second largest steel producer in China, where 53% of the world’s total of steel is produced, and the fourth largest in the world.

The order for the first DRI plant in China placed by HBIS is a notable milestone for China and its steelmaking community, paving the way to the transition from the carbon-based BF route to gas-based DRI technology and electric steelmaking.

To be installed at HBIS facilities in the Hebei province, the new Energiron DR plant will produce 600,000 tpy of quality DRI starting from the end of 2021.

HBIS selected Energiron Direct Reduction technology to achieve the highest targets in terms of energy efficiency, product quality and environmental compliance.

Energiron DR technology allows great flexibility in the mixture of gas used as a make-up, so it will be possible to reach 100% hydrogen as reducing agent.

The gas mixture to be used by HBIS will be composed approximately by 30% of coke oven gas available from the existing integrated plant and approximately by 70% of hydrogen from external sources.

With a CO2 release as low as 250 kg/ton of DRI, the HBIS plant will be the greenest DRI plant in the world.

Furthermore, the carbon dioxide will be selectively recovered by a CO2 removal unit included in the basic Energiron DR technology process scheme, and part of it will be reutilized in downstream processes (carbon capture and use or storage CCU/CCS).

This would lead to a final net emission of just about 125 kg of CO2 per ton of DRI.

Energiron is the innovative DRI technology jointly developed by Tenova HYL and Danieli.