Midrex Opens Second Plant

The second commercial FASTMET plant began operation last month at the Kakogawa Works of Kobe Steel, Ltd. in Japan. This is part of Kobe's plan to turn Kakogawa into a zero emissions facility by the end of this year, an industry first.

The FASTMET Process, developed by Midrex Technologies, Inc. and Kobe Steel, converts iron ore fines or steel mill wastes into metallic iron using pulverized coal or other solid carbon-bearing materials. Intensive research in the United States and Japan has resulted in the ability to produce highly metallized product with good productivity.

Kobe Steel, Ltd. converted the FASTMET Demonstration Plant at its Kakogawa Works into an iron-bearing solid waste recycling facility. Using waste oil as the primary fuel source, the demonstration plant has been modified to process blast furnace and steelmaking dust, including upgrading the off gas cleaning unit to recover high zinc content dust.

The Kakogawa FASTMET Plant reclaims zinc-rich iron oxide dust from blast furnace and steelmaking operations, with a treatment capacity of 16,000 metric tons per year. The facility uses pellets made of blast furnace and steelmaking dust that are then fed to a rotary hearth furnace and heated to a high temperature.

The Kakogawa Works currently produces 300,000 metric tons per month of waste, including steel slag, mill dust, used refractory bricks, waste oil and other byproducts. Kakogawa'srecycling rate of 96% prior to the start of the program has risen to nearly100%, decreasing disposal costs. By the end of next year Kakogawa intends to achieve zero emissions.

Started up last spring, the world's first commercial FASTMET Plant at Hirohata Works has the capacity to process 190,000 metric tons per year of steel mill waste into highly metallized DRI. The DRI is being hot charged into Hirohata's steelmaking shop along with scrap and pig iron to produce steel.