JFE Steel to Inject Ultra Fine Plastic into Blast Furnace

JFE Steel announced the firm started test running of plastic processing plant at Keihin area of East Japan works to make fine powder to inject into blast furnace after the firm developed the technology. The firm tries to make use of the plastic as reducing agent and reduces some of coke consumption. The new plant is to make fine powder with 200-400 micro meters of diameter after melting and dechlorination processes for packaging plastic. The firm succeeded to make the fine powder compared with traditional crushed plastic with more than 1 millimeter of diameter for industry use. The firm can use the fine powder with better reactivity as reducing agent in blast furnace. The new plant can process around 8,000 tonnes of plastic per year. The firm got around 500 million yen of subsidy from New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization as energy saving project out of around 1.4 billion yen of the investment. The firm starts commercial operation in March making as much as annual 7,000 tonnes of powder. The powder utilization could reduce carbon dioxide up to annual 18,000 tonnes due to lower consumption of coke.