Voestalpine starts a project to build an EAF at the plant in Donawitz

The commissioning of the electric arc furnace is planned for 2027

The Austrian steel producer Voestalpine has started the implementation of the project for the construction of an electric arc furnace (EAF) at the steel plant in Donawitz, which is part of the «greentec steel» plan. It is stated in the company’s message.

Construction of EAF with a capacity of 850,000 tons of green steel per year will begin in 2024, commissioning is planned for 2027. The Italian industrial company Danieli will be responsible for the design development, production and commissioning of the EAF.

At the site in Donawitz, the necessary locations for construction are already being cleared – certain objects are being demolished here, including an old continuous casting plant and a railway track that is not in use. An electric arc furnace will be installed here in the future and a new scrap yard will be built.

APG (Austrian Power Grid) and local supplier Energie Steiermark are already working on the electricity infrastructure. In addition, Voestalpine is installing photovoltaic systems to expand its own renewable energy production capacity. Wind turbines, hydraulic power generators and other photovoltaic installations will also be developed together with regional partners.

Investments in the facility in Donawitz will amount to about €450 million, the project will provide approximately 2.8 thousand jobs in Austria.

Greentec steel is a step-by-step plan for the production of environmentally friendly steel from the Voestalpine Group. In the first stage, electric arc furnaces will be built at steel plants in Linz and Donawitz. The transition to this technology allows the group to reduce emissions by approximately 30%, the amount of investment is about €1.5 billion.

As GMK Center reported earlier, the developer of advanced technologies in decarbonization is Compact Membrane Systems (CMS) together with Voestalpine announced the launch of pilot project on carbon capture Optiperm carbon. It will start operating in the fourth quarter of 2023 at the steel company’s plant in Linz.