Following the installation last month of a new Energiron DRI plant at Egypt’s Ezz Rolling Mills (ERM), the company reports that the plant has passed its performance test one month after start-up.
According to leading Italian steel production technology provider Danieli, ERM’s new cold DRI plant, featuring ENERGIRON lll technology, produced its first DRI on 22 November and passed the hot test on 2 December.
Limited national gas forced the plant to work at a reduced rate followng completion of the hot test, despite the fact that it was ready to increase productivity.
Natural gas availability was restored on 14 December and the plant was ramped up to full productivity, starting its performance test the following day and performing well above its target figures.
Danieli claims that productivity was 112% of the guaranteed value, showing a metallisation of >94% and a carbon content of >3% – ‘a feature achievable only with Energiron technology’, the company said.
In terms of overall energy consumption, the plant’s natural gas specific consumption was 2,57 Gcal/tonne and 30kWh/tonne electric energy.
Where raw material yield was concerned, the ERM plant achieved a ratio of 1.37 tonnes of oxide per tonne of DRI and can process oxide pellets or lumps screened at 3.2mm, minimising the rejected portion.
Total plant production has already exceeded 110kt in less than one month, with an hourly rate of 262 tonnes/hr and an annual production rate of 2.1Mt/yr – 10% above the guaranteed value of 1.9Mt/yr.