Anew energy efficient ironmaking tech- nology, SupaScrap, by Iron Mineral Beneficiation Services (IMBS), could replace the blast furnaces that are traditionally used in steelmaking, as the technology’s high-iron, low-impurity content product will be predominantly used as a feedstock for electric steelmaking, says company CEO John Beachy Head.
The SupaScrap technology could potentially be a game-changing proposition for the iron and steel industries, as it enables more steel production, he adds.
Scrap iron is finite and steel typically contains about 98% iron. When steel is scrapped it is used as a feedstock for the steelmaking process, as a source of iron.
About 70-million tons of scrap iron is manufactured a year and the balance, about 700-million tons, is recycled scrap steel from construction and industrial applications.
SupaScrap is effectively a manufactured, high-quality and low residual scrap, which will add to the manufactured scrap pool.
Beachy Head expects one-million tons of SupaScrap to be produced in South Africa over the next five years, of which a large portion will be used for domestic steelmaking and the rest will be exported.
The company is targeting production of metallic iron at under $200/t to supplement ferrous scrap, which is selling at more than $400/t.
Through its SupaScrap technology, IMBS is able to produce a product that has one-and-a-half times the density of iron-ore, at four times the value.
“This is what true beneficiation is,” Beachy Head states.
The SupaScrap technology eliminates agglomeration, while enabling steelmakers to recover fine and superfine iron-ore from mined iron-ore and from the waste produced at some steel plants.
“The environmental impact of the iron-ore recovery process is reduced, owing to this technology, as it allows iron-ore tailings to be rehabilitated and eradicated, while energy recovery is improved,” he explains.
Beachy Head says the SupaScrap technology supplements scrap or metallic iron in the steelmaking process and that an opportunity exists to promote minimill steelmakers, with minimal capital input needed, and increase the availability of scrap or metallic iron. He notes that, in 2011, global crude steel production reached 1.49-billion tons, of which about 63% was produced in blast furnaces and 34% in electric-arc furnaces.
The bulk of scrap iron is used in electric-arc furnaces as feed.
Therefore, as global steel consumption increases, there is a growing shortage of scrap, which, according to Beachy Head, is exacerbated by an increase in electric steelmaking.
This further results in increased demand for and higher pricing of manufactured scrap, which is where SupaScrap technology will aid the market.
By creating an additional manufactured stream of high-quality scrap at a competitive price, the reliance on traditional scrap sources is reduced and, in turn, creates further steelmaking opportunities,” Beachy Head states.
He adds that small plants become viable with the SupaScrap technology, as its modular design allow plants to be constructed on site in units of 50 000 t/y high-quality metallic iron output, compared with traditional steelmaking production plants, which must produce millions of tons a year of steel to be viable.
A SupaScrap plant can be erected in months, compared with the five to seven years required for a major installation.
Further, the use of thermal coal, which is in abundant supply and significantly cheaper than the high-quality coking coal required by steelmaking plants, allows for significant operational savings.
The technology also produces enough thermal energy so that, should a recovery efficiency of about 30% be achieved, the installation becomes self-sufficient.
IMBS notes that the design strategy of the SupaScrap technology includes proprietary reduction kilns, melting technologies and coal devolatilisation.
The SupaScrap technology is currently in the feasibility study stage for two 500 000 t/y projects in Limpopo.
Both projects are in the Phalaborwa area, one on the JSE-listed copper miner Palabora Mining Company’s mine site and the other in the Phalaborwa industrial area.
The first 50 000 t/y commercial plant is under construction and Beachy Head expects it to be fully operational by mid-2013.