Caspian Report - Issue: 07 - Spring 2014

AntonIo SIleo
88
ductant chemical reactions generated
by coke and carbon oxides (developed
through the combustion of
coke).
In the new gas-based configuration,
the reductant is natural gas. Since
this hydrocarbon, in its virgin form,
has a low reducing power, it has to be
converted into a mixture of H2 and
CO. This conversion takes place in
reactors and is called the reforming
process. During this process, both
the calorific value and the proportion
of reducing gas in relation to the
oxidizing gases (like CO 2
) increase.
When natural gas rather than coal is
used to make iron, CO 2
production
could be 50-65% lower, depending
on how one accounts for the CO 2
sources. In addition to the drastic reduction
of emissions from the plant,
the production could benefit from
greater flexibility and increased productivity.
Flexibility is guaranteed
based on the fact that the plant can
operate at a wide spectrum of hydrogen
to carbon monoxide ratios
(0.5 to 3.5). The quality of the steel
produced with the gas technology is
also higher in respect to the conventional
steel making process, because
the virgin iron contains lower levels
of unwanted elements such as zinc
and copper. Additional benefits can
also be identified in terms of operating
costs, which, defined as materials
management, are much lower.
Despite these advantages, many
doubts remain about the practical
feasibility of the new project. So far,
experts are mainly assessing the
technical feasibility of the transformation
of the production process,
but a detailed analysis regarding
the investment costs still has to be