Baosteel Zhanjiang launches DRI plant with a capacity of 1 million tons per year

China’s Baosteel Zhanjiang Iron & Steel (part of China Baowu Group) has launched a direct reduced iron (DRI) plant in Guangdong province. This was reported by technology provider Danieli.

The new plant can produce up to 1 million tons of DRI per year using natural gas, coke oven gas and hydrogen using the Energiron Zero Reformer technology developed by Danieli and Tenova.

Baosteel Zhanjiang is the largest operating DRI plant in the world currently using hydrogen and has the largest reactor ever installed in China. According to Danieli, it is also the second in the country to use Energiron technology after the 600 ktpa HBIS plant, which began operations in May 2023 in Hebei province.

All Energiron DRI plants can reduce CO₂ emissions by using hydrogen to capture the carbon generated during the recovery process. The Chinese company chose Tenova and Danieli technology in the summer of 2022.

In June 2023, HBIS successfully produced a commercial batch of direct reduced iron using Energiron technology, which enriches coke oven gas with hydrogen by more than 60%. The company plans to expand its hydrogen-based DRI production capacity to 1.2 million tons per year.

As GMK Center reported earlier, Danieli will supply a hybrid DRI unit for the Ternium steel plant in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. The project will contribute to the company’s commitment to decarbonize production by 2030.