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AISTech 2011: Predicting the future
“It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” This quotation, or some version of it, has been spoken by philosophers including Mark Twain, Albert Einstein, and Yogi Berra. It certainly applies to our world today.
Midrex exhibited at the recent AISTech conference in Indianapolis. The show was quite busy, with attendance of well over 1,000 and good interest in Midrex and direct reduction. The Town Hall forum, which includes top executives from North American steelmakers and other steel-related companies, is always interesting and informative. One of the main themes of the discussion was the pace of change in the industry. The industry is recovering from the effects of the global financial crisis and returning to profitability. Yet, the current environment includes rapid price and cost swings and uncertainty about the direction of the market. How can steel companies and those affiliated with the industry, cope with this situation? Several of the solutions given by the executives apply to Midrex’s business of supplying direct reduction technology and services:
• Flexible technologies –the MIDREX® Process is very flexible regarding energy source (natural gas, coal gas), product form and temperature (hot or cold DRI, HBI), capacity (up to 2.5 Mtpy), and emissions (CO2 as low as 250 kg/t DRI)
• Innovation – Ted Lyon of Hatch said that the steel industry needs “creative process technologies.” The MIDREX Process fits this description and we are ramping up our technology development to better meet the needs of the world steel industry. Recent innovations that are being commercialized include the SUPER MEGAMOD®, MXCOL®, larger briquette machines, three forms of hot DRI transport, and ITmk3®.
• Backward integration – Keith Busse of SDI remarked that “it’s imperative if you’re going to be a healthy steel producer… to backward vertically integrate.” EAF steelmakers realize the benefits of having a captive supply of high quality iron to supplement their scrap feed. Since scrap is bought at the market price each month, this captive source provides an excellent way to hedge metallics prices and risk.
• Use of variety of energy sources and lower grade ores – with MXCOL, there is now the ability to use a variety of coal-based syngas sources in the MIDREX Process, including coal gasifers, coke oven gas, and BOF gas. Thus, blast furnace producers now have a way to make DRI to augment their hot metal. In addition, COREX® offgas can be used. Midrex is also doing a lot of research on the use of lower grade ores in the MIDREX® Shaft Furnace.
Although we are facing a number of challenges, the steel industry is an exciting place to be. At Midrex, we welcome the challenges and we are working hard to develop and commercialize the new technologies that are essential for success. As the philosophers noted, we can’t always predict the future, but by constantly monitoring steel industry needs and applying our creative talents, we are confident that we will continue to lead the direct reduction industry.
www.honeymp3.com/
posted by John Kopfle
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 10:18 PM
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 10:18 PM
“It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” This quotation, or some version of it, has been spoken by philosophers including Mark Twain, Albert Einstein, and Yogi Berra. It certainly applies to our world today.
Midrex exhibited at the recent AISTech conference in Indianapolis. The show was quite busy, with attendance of well over 1,000 and good interest in Midrex and direct reduction. The Town Hall forum, which includes top executives from North American steelmakers and other steel-related companies, is always interesting and informative. One of the main themes of the discussion was the pace of change in the industry. The industry is recovering from the effects of the global financial crisis and returning to profitability. Yet, the current environment includes rapid price and cost swings and uncertainty about the direction of the market. How can steel companies and those affiliated with the industry, cope with this situation? Several of the solutions given by the executives apply to Midrex’s business of supplying direct reduction technology and services:
• Flexible technologies –the MIDREX® Process is very flexible regarding energy source (natural gas, coal gas), product form and temperature (hot or cold DRI, HBI), capacity (up to 2.5 Mtpy), and emissions (CO2 as low as 250 kg/t DRI)
• Innovation – Ted Lyon of Hatch said that the steel industry needs “creative process technologies.” The MIDREX Process fits this description and we are ramping up our technology development to better meet the needs of the world steel industry. Recent innovations that are being commercialized include the SUPER MEGAMOD®, MXCOL®, larger briquette machines, three forms of hot DRI transport, and ITmk3®.
• Backward integration – Keith Busse of SDI remarked that “it’s imperative if you’re going to be a healthy steel producer… to backward vertically integrate.” EAF steelmakers realize the benefits of having a captive supply of high quality iron to supplement their scrap feed. Since scrap is bought at the market price each month, this captive source provides an excellent way to hedge metallics prices and risk.
• Use of variety of energy sources and lower grade ores – with MXCOL, there is now the ability to use a variety of coal-based syngas sources in the MIDREX Process, including coal gasifers, coke oven gas, and BOF gas. Thus, blast furnace producers now have a way to make DRI to augment their hot metal. In addition, COREX® offgas can be used. Midrex is also doing a lot of research on the use of lower grade ores in the MIDREX® Shaft Furnace.
Although we are facing a number of challenges, the steel industry is an exciting place to be. At Midrex, we welcome the challenges and we are working hard to develop and commercialize the new technologies that are essential for success. As the philosophers noted, we can’t always predict the future, but by constantly monitoring steel industry needs and applying our creative talents, we are confident that we will continue to lead the direct reduction industry.
www.honeymp3.com/
