HIsarna – Developing a Sustainable Steel Production Process
| Case Code: OPER144 Case Length: 15 Pages Period: 2011-2017 Pub Date: 2020 Teaching Note: Available |
Price: Rs.400 Organization: Tata Steel Industry: Metals & Mining Countries: India, Germany, The Netherlands, France, Germany, UK Themes: Project Management, Production Management, Sustainable Production, Production Technology |
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts
Excerpts
Steel Industry
The steel industry played a major role in the global economy. Steel was extensively used in industries like construction, heavy engineering, infrastructure development, shipping, and automobile, as well as in the production of coal, natural gas, electricity, and raw minerals. The production of steel increased constantly over the years, and 1.5 billion tons of steel were produced in 2012 as against 0.85 million tons in 2001. Steel, an alloy of iron and carbon, was one of the most recycled industrial materials in the world with 97% of steel being reused, remanufactured, or recycled to create new products...
ULCOS – Ultra-Low Carbon Dioxide Steelmaking
The Paris Agreement 5 set standards for CO2 reductions globally. The European Union was targeting to cut the emission levels by 80%–95% of the 1990 levels by 2050. The European Union was also looking toward developing a circular economy to reduce pressure on the environment and to enhance security of supply of raw materials. In 2004, the European Union asked the steel industry to reduce its carbon footprint. The European steel industry on its part was committed to lowering process costs, reducing energy use, and enabling more resource efficient processes....
HIsarna
HIsarna originated from HI-for HIsmelt (process from Rio Tinto) and sarana from Isarna, the Celtic word for iron. It was a combination of three processes namely, the heated screw coal pyrolysis feeder, Cyclone Converter Furnace (CCF), and the HIsmelt vessel. For the HIsarna process, Tata Steel’s hot metal desulfurization plant in IJmuidin was chosen due to location advantages like railway connectivity, deep sea harbor, good logistic connections, and suitable capacity...
Experiment with HIsarna
The IJmuiden, based in Velsen-Noord, the Netherlands, was founded in 1918 and became a part of Tata Steel after the acquisition of Corus. It employed around 9000 people and produced 7 million tons of steel annually. As a part of the ULCOS project, Tata Steel built the HIsarna pilot plant in 2010. The € 20 million plant was funded jointly by ULCOS, the European Commission, and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs...
The Game Changer
HIsarna was expected to become a game changer that significantly improved the sustainability performance of steel production. Steel companies and scientists from all over the world took a keen interest in the development of HIsarna, and touted it as a revolutionary innovation that had eliminated 2 out of the 3 process steps for iron making. It was seen as a solution to high energy use and CO2 emissions...
Looking Ahead
The main challenge was to develop HIsarna into industrial scale, and transition to suit specific location size and configuration. After successful runs, the designing of the HIsarna industrial plant began. The plant was two to three times the size of the existing plant and could make ten times more liquid iron. This called for investments of up to € 300 million and needed the support of governments across the European Union. Even after completion, the HIsarna process had to be tested for several years before it could start producing steel commercially....
Exhibits
Exhibit I: Tata Steel – Global Presence
Exhibit II: Tata Group – IJmuiden Plant
Exhibit III: CO2 Emissions and Energy Consumption Per ton of Crude Steel 1960-2014
Exhibit IV: HIsarna
Exhibit V: HIsarna Process – Key Development Achievements
Exhibit VI: Conventional Steel Making Vs HIsarna
Exhibit VII: HIsarna with Carbon Capture
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