Swedish steelmaker Alleima has announced a strategic partnership to develop and industrialize full-scale electric process gas heaters for DRI plants.
Alleima’s Kanthal division has signed a strategic partnership with Danieli, a major global supplier of turnkey plants and equipment for the iron and steel industry, to jointly develop and scale up Kanthal’s demonstrated electric process gas direct-heating solution, Prothal® DH, to full industrial scale. The introduction of Prothal® DH technology in blast furnace operation will reduce CO2 emissions in ironmaking, it is claimed.
Speaking exclusively to Steel Times International whilst on a plant tour of Kanthal's production facilities outside of Stockholm, part of the 2024 Future Steel Forum held in the Swedish capital, the company's president, Robert Stål commented: "We are very excited. We are on the right path with Danieli," he said, explaining how the company's electric process gas heaters would be scaled up to 100s of megaWatts and used in conjunction with hydrogen-ready Energiron DRI technology, which was developed in conjunction with Tenova.
Kanthal has been around for 90 years, but, according to Stål, has never been so well-positioned. He said that today electric heating was within the scale of kiloWatts, but with the Danieli deal in place it will into megaWatt territory.
Under the name Prothal® DH, Kanthal has developed a direct heated electric solution for high-temperature process gas heating – one important step towards enabling zero-emission DRI plants. The solution has been tested and verified in pilot scale and with this partnership, Kanthal and Danieli aim to further develop the technology to full scale.
The ambition is to have a solution ready for commercialization in 2027, and once Prothal® DH has been installed in Energiron hydrogen-ready DRI plants, fully green DRI production will be achieved. Furthermore, the introduction of Prothal® DH technology in blast furnace operation will reduce CO2 emissions in ironmaking. The heating solution will be developed for hydrogen, natural gas and combinations, thereby enabling retrofitting of existing DRI plants.
“We are progressing further in bringing large-scale electric gas heaters to the market, a crucial move to significantly cut or even eliminate CO2 emissions. We're thrilled to collaborate with a leading expert in DRI technology to enable the steel industry's transition to greener practices
Robert Stål, president, Kanthal
“We are progressing further in bringing large-scale electric gas heaters to the market, a crucial move to significantly cut or even eliminate CO2 emissions. We're thrilled to collaborate with a leading expert in DRI technology to enable the steel industry's transition to greener practices,” said Stål.
“Even for natural gas-based DRI plants, you will achieve more than a 30% reduction of CO2 emissions when you electrify the heating system. This partnership allows the unlocking of huge potential for a new technology that will drive Energiron DR plants' carbon footprint further ahead in the race towards green steel,” said Marco Lapasin, vice president of Danieli Engineering Centro Metallics.