Posted on 28 Jan 2016
Bécancour will host the 2 MTPY HBI plant set to begin operations in 2019.
January 28, 2016 – (Bécancour, QC – Canada) Société Internationale Métallique (SIM) has chosen Midrex Technologies, Inc. and its construction licensee Primetals Technologies to furnish the equipment and oversee the technological aspect of its project to build a 2.0 million ton-per-year (MTPY) hot briquetted iron (HBI) plant in the Bécancour Waterfront Industrial Park, a public-owned industrial park on the shores of the Saint-Lawrence River (Quebec, Canada); the site is a year-round deep water port and connected to major North American rail and road infrastructure.
‘‘The MIDREX? Process is the technology responsible for nearly two thirds of the world’s annual DRI production and the primary technology behind most HBI produced today, thus it was a logical choice for us,” stated Mr. Daubeny B. Cooper III, President of Société Internationale Métallique. “SIM will produce the best HBI in the world by merging this state of art technology with high quality and strategically located iron ore. Coupled with a friendly business environment and historically-proven performance, SIM’s new plant is positioned to be a leader in clean iron-reducing and in the secondary transformation processing of iron ore in the province of Quebec.’’
Midrex and Primetals Technologies will be responsible for providing the principal equipment of the plant, in coordination with a construction and engineering firm that remains to be selected. Using the MIDREX NG? Process, Midrex and Primetals Technologies are designing the plant to have a rated capacity of 2.0 million metric tons per year of HBI, making it one of the largest HBI modules in the world. MIDREX? Technology is also being used in a similar plant currently under construction in Texas in the United States.
‘‘Midrex built two of its first ironmaking plants in Quebec nearly 40 years ago, so it is a pleasure for us to come back to Canada with our latest technology advances,” said James D. McClaskey, President and CEO of Midrex Technologies, Inc.. “HBI is a raw material that allows a clean, efficient way for many steelmakers to augment their steel production. HBI demand continues to grow, and with this new plant SIM will be in a prime position to supply various steelmakers worldwide by capitalizing on the expertise and natural resources of the local region.”
“Primetals Technologies (formerly Siemens VAI) has been a licensee for the MIDREX? Direct Reduction Process for more than 30 years and in co-operation with MIDREX has built more than 20 MIDREX? Plants worldwide,” said Heiner R?hrl, CEO of Primetals Technologies Austria. “From the development of the first HBI plant in Malaysia in the 1980s up to the HBI plants currently under construction in Russia and the world’s largest HBI plant in Texas, USA, Primetals Technologies played a major role in building most of the HBI plants and contributed with its expertise in the iron and steel industry to the development of this technology.”
Iron ores are first ground and concentrated and then processed to direct reduction (DR) grade pellets. These pellets are fed into a MIDREX? Shaft Furnace where they are reduced to metallic iron. The hot pellets are malleable, and are fed into briquetting machines, producing hot briquetted iron (HBI) with a metallization degree exceeding 93 percent. The briquettes have an apparent density exceeding 5.0 g/cm3 and are well suited for safe waterborne and rail transport due to the density and the low amount of fines generated during handling. HBI is used to supplement EAF charge material and the physical and chemical characteristics of HBI also make the metallic easier to charge to blast furnaces.
Construction is expected to begin in 2017 for a 2-year period, enabling the plant to start
