Vendor confirmed
After many months of planning, we confirmed a vendor for the direct reduced iron plant that will produce 2.5 million tonnes of DRI per year to feed the electric arc furnaces to produce steel. The DRI plant will be the largest single-module direct reduction plant in Canada and will also be the most obvious physical aspect of the decarbonization project.
At approximately 150 metres tall and 14 metres wide, the DRI tower will be a prominent structure on the company’s site and in the city. That height will make it the tallest structure in Hamilton. (The current tallest point is Landmark Place in the downtown, which is 127 metres.)
The plant will initially operate on natural gas but will be constructed “hydrogen ready.”
“One of the most exciting aspects of this project is that, in the future, our DRI module will be ready to be reconfigured so that we can replace natural gas with hydrogen, which will produce almost no carbon emissions at all," says Kyle Ferron, DRI Technology and Project manager at ArcelorMittal Dofasco.
Looking forward, on-site construction work will begin in January 2023 with the demolition of a decommissioned coke plant to make room for the new DRI plant. Demolition is anticipated to take nine months.
Construction will become visible in 2024 as the structure begins to take shape. It will largely be built off-site and then assembled at the plant by very large cranes in a modular fashion.
Once up and running, the DRI module will be highly automated in terms of monitoring, inspection and predictive maintenance, says Ferron.
“There will be less physical involvement in the equipment, which will make for safer jobs," he says. "There is also an expectation of high reliability and productivity in this unit when we transition to the new steelmaking assets.”
The other major component of the decarbonization project is the construction of an EAF capable of producing 2.4 million tonnes of high-quality steel through ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s existing casting, rolling and finishing facilities. The EAF vendor has yet to be finalized.