COURSE 50 Project to Start Test Blast Furnace Operation in F2013

COURSE 50 project, led by Japan Iron and Steel Federation, Japanese 5 integrated steel makers and Nippon Steel Engineering and supported by NEDO (New Energy & Industrial Technology Development Organization), will enter measurement and analysis phase by using new test blast furnace in and after fiscal 2011 (starting in April).

The institute and the makers plan to advance technology development to reduce CO2 emission from blast furnace, to separate and collect CO2 from blast furnace gas by fiscal 2012. For the next step, they will introduce a test blast furnace with output capacity of several ten tonnes per day in Japan in or after fiscal 2013.

The project eyes test operation of a blast furnace held by LKAB in Sweden. The furnace’s inner capacity is 8.2 cubic meters and the daily output capacity is 40 tonnes. The project’s participants are now talking with LKAB to implement test operation for 6 weeks during January-June 2012. The test operation is estimated to cost 300 million yen.

Meanwhile, the project schedules bench plant construction in Fukuyama area of JFE Steel’s West Japan works in fiscal 2010 and start the operation in fiscal 2011. The plant’s CO2 collecting capacity is 3 tonnes per day. In Chiba area of JFE Steel’s West Japan works, construction of another equipment to collect sensible heat from steel slug is scheduled.

COURSE 50 stands for “CO2 Ultimate Reduction in Steelmaking Process by Innovative Technology for Cool Earth 50” to reduce CO2 emission from steel making by 30%. The project aims to establish the technology and realize the first blast furnace by 2030.