Posted on 25 Sep 2024
Tosyalı Algérie, a subsidiary of Turkish conglomerate Tosyalı, announced on its social media that it has commissioned and started commercial production at its second DRI plant, Kallanish notes.
The new DRI plant can run on both natural gas and, with modifications, 100% hydrogen, thereby minimizing its carbon footprint.
The new module, build by Midrex and its partner Paul Wurth, with increased percentages of hydrogen in the future will produce 2.5 million tonnes per year of hot direct reduced iron (HDRI) and cold direct reduced iron (CDRI) and is part of phase 4 of the Tosyali Algerie steel complex, a DRI-EAF integrated flat steel production facility, began in 2022.
HDRI will be fed via a hot transport conveyor to the new 2.2 mt/y EAF melt shop for slab production, providing greater EAF productivity and energy savings. During melt shop outages, the plant can continue producing CDRI up to full capacity.
The hot strip mill will follow later in the year, and the downstream cold rolling mill and galvanizing and color-coating lines are expected to be operational in 2025.
With the commissioning of the second DRI, Tosyalı Algérie now have the largest, over 5 million tonnes of DRI production capacity in the Mediterranean basin, covering Europe and North Africa, it claims.
In the summer, Tosyalı Algérie signed a memorandum of understanding with Sonatrach, Africa's largest energy company, to collaborate on the production of green hydrogen in Algeria and its use in the steel industry.
By 2040, Algeria plans to supply Europe with 10% of its clean hydrogen demand, potentially facilitated by a pipeline connected to Italy for transporting green and blue hydrogen, according to media reports.
Tosyali Holding began its Algerian operations in the Bethioua industrial zone, 40 km east of Oran in 2013. Covering 4 million square meters with access to the Mediterranean Sea, the complex was developed in phases.
Phase 1 included a 1.5 mt/y EAF steel meltshop and a 1.2 mt/y rolling mill for rebar. Phase 2, completed in 2015, added a 0.5 mt/y wire rod mill.
In Phase 3, launched in 2018, Tosyali integrated iron ore processing, setting up a 4 Mt/y beneficiation plant and pellet production unit to transforms iron ore fines into iron oxide pellets to feed direct reduction module, reducing reliance on imported scrap.
Midrex announced in December last year that discussions on the DRI-3 project, which will utilize the Midrex Flex concept for hydrogen transition, are ongoing.
Separately, Tosyali and Algeria’s National Iron and Steel Corporation Feral, a branch of the Sonaram Complex (formerly Algeria Mining Complex) signed an agreement to set up a unit for the production of iron ore concentrates in the Tomiyat region of Basha with annual production capacity of 1 million tonnes.
Source:Kallanish
