DRI production has started at Chinese steel producer Baosteel's Zhanjiang plant, located in the GuangDong Province.

Featuring technology jointly developed by Tenova and Danieli, the new plant will produce 1Mt/yr of quality DRI by using natural gas, coke-oven gas, and hydrogen.

Baosteel Zhanjiang DRI plant is the second Energiron DRI plant in China, following that of HBIS which started operation in May 2023.

Baosteel Zhanjiang is the largest reactor ever installed in China and the largest DR plant in operation in the world currently using hydrogen, according to Danieli.

As stated in a company press release, DRI pellets processed by Energiron plants allow up to ‘96% metallization and variable carbon-content ranging from 0.5%, with extensive use of hydrogen, and up 4.5% using 100% natural gas.’

All Energiron DRI plants are capable of lowering carbon dioxide emissions thanks to the use of hydrogen and the intrinsic capacity to capture the CO2 generated by the reduction process, states Danieli.