December 2011 - SIMA

e maintained while taking advantage of the moreefficient, higher quality gas-based DRI producingtechnologies.DR Plant configurations for IndiaLooking at the Indian DRI industry some years back,Tenova HYL determined that a solution wouldeventually be needed to replace the existing coalbasedDRI production that faces ever increasingcontrols and regulations because of its environmentalhazards. While the major steel producers are capableof making the large capital investments necessaryfor large scale DRI plants to feed their own steel mills,the smaller coal-based DRI producers don’t have thatluxury. So Tenova HYL decided to engineer a small,efficient, cost-effective gas based DR plant that couldpossibly compete on the smallest production scale.HYL Micro-ModuleThe HYL Micro-Module was developed to produce200,000 tpa of high quality, high carbon DRI usingour Energiron ZR reformerless plant technology. Thefirst of these plants has been installed and put intooperation in Abu Dhabi, UAE and more are underconsideration by various companies in India.The Micro-Module becomes the smallest gas basedDR facility capable of producing high quality productwith a capital cost in the range of $250-300 per tonof product. This of course is higher than the cost of acoal-based plant, but the quality of the DRI producedfar exceeds that of a coal-based unit, while being themost environmentally friendly processes on themarket.Still, in areas where natural gas is either unavailableor the cost is prohibitive, other options must be madeavailable. That is precisely where the flexibility ofthe Energiron ZR process scheme becomes evenmore relevant for India.Energiron ZR using SyngasBecause the Energiron ZR process does not includean integrated gas reformer, it can use any source ofreducing gases to produce high quality DRI. A coalgasification plant can use low grade coals to producethe necessary reducing agents (H2 and CO) for directreduction, and it can do so in a manner that is cleaner200,000 tpa HYL Micro-Module Plant,GSPI, Abu Dhabiand more efficient than the direct use of coal as areductant. Essentially, it allows the use of gas-basedtechnology in areas where natural gas is not anoption, permitting the production of highly metalized,high carbon DRI from gas made from coal.Energiron ZR Process SchemeUsing Syngas as ReductantDECEMBER-2011/28