Kobe Steel's new technology brings 20% cut in blast furnace emissions of CO2

Kobe Steel

16/02/2021 08:10

TOKYO, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Japan's Kobe Steel Ltd  5406.T 
has successfully demonstrated a new technology to reduce CO2
emissions from blast furnace operations by a fifth, as compared
to the conventional approach, a company official said on
Tuesday.
    Cutting carbon emissions from steelmaking is a key part of
efforts to fight climate change and Japan's No.3 steelmaker sees
the technology as a promising solution other manufacturers could
adopt without large capital expenditure.
    "If there is demand from our customers for low-carbon steel,
we could make it available within a year," Koichiro Shibata, an
executive vice president of the firm, told a news conference.
    The demonstration ran for a month at a blast furnace of the
Kakogawa Works in the western region of Hyogo in October 2020.
    The new method uses a combination of Kobe Steel's blast
furnace operation technology and the direct reduction iron (DRI)
technology of its U.S. unit, Midrex Technologies Inc. 
    DRI is a steelmaking raw material made by reducing iron ore,
which finds its chief use in electric arc furnaces as a
supplement or substitute for high-quality scrap and pig iron.
    Midrex's technology uses natural gas to reduce iron ore for
use in steelmaking, offering lower CO2 emissions than from blast
furnaces.
    But charging a large amount of DRI in a briquette form,
produced by the Midrex process, into a blast furnace could slash
the required amount of carbon fuel, such as coke, bringing about
lower CO2 emissions.
    The additional cost of the low-carbon steel is estimated at
about 10 yen ($0.09) per kg, Shibata added.
($1=105.5200 yen)

 (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
 ((Yuka.Obayashi@thomsonreuters.com; +813-4563-2761;))