Fortescue works with Chinese steelmaker on new green iron technology
BEIJING, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Australia’s Fortescue (FMG.AX), said on Wednesday that it would cooperate with a subsidiary of China Baowu, the world’s largest steelmaker, to explore new green technology for accelerating decarbonisation in the hard-to-abate steel industry.
Fortescue, the world’s fourth-largest iron ore supplier, signed an agreement with China’s Taiyuan Iron and Steel Group (TISCO) in late November on a trial project on hydrogen-based plasma-enhanced iron and steel metallurgical technology, the company said in a statement on its WeChat account.
The project aims to develop a new technology that will remove the process of pre-treating raw materials such as iron ore sintering, pelletizing and coking, typically a large contributor to carbon dioxide emissions in steelmaking.
The cooperation involves designing, building and operating an industrial trial line with the technology that could produce 5,000 metric tons of hot metal, a blast furnace product.
Agustin Gus Pichot, Fortescue’s chief executive officer for growth and energy, said:
We are exploring the technology for green smelting using Fortescue’s Pilbara iron ore,
Steel decarbonisation will generate growing needs for higher grade iron ore, posing challenges for Australian miners, which mainly supply low-to-medium grade iron ore.
Fortescue will provide capital for the project, it said.
Earlier in the year, Fortescue partnered with another subsidiary of China Baowu for green iron technology.
Reporting by Amy Lv and Lewis Jackson; Editing by Joe Bavier
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Fortescue works with Chinese steelmaker on new green iron technology, source
