Direct Reduction
Shaft Furnace and Rotary Hearth Furnace (RHF)
As the global technology leader in direct reduced iron (DRI) - a high-purity product for use in steelmaking, ironmaking and foundry applications - Midrex offers two types of furnaces for iron production and mineral processing.
The MIDREX® Direct Reduction Process employs a shaft furnace to convert iron ore into DRI using natural gas or syngas from coal (MXCOL™). The MIDREX® Process is energy efficient and flexible, producing 60 percent of the world’s DRI annually. Midrex offers three rotary hearth furnace-based technologies: FASTMET® provides for recycling of steel mill by-products with iron unit recovery; FASTMELT® processes steel mill by-products into hot metal or pig iron for steel mill use; and ITmk3® (pronounced "eye-tee" mark 3) produces high quality pig iron nuggets from iron ore.
Our technology development capabilities enable us to discover and commercialize solutions for the evolving steel industry. These efforts enhance our shaft furnace and RHF technologies, which are the industry’s most successful. A major focus of recent efforts has been hot discharge of DRI, transport to the meltshop and hot charging to the EAF. We are currently working to further increase the capacity of the shaft furnace to more than two million tons per year - a technology known as the SUPER MEGAMOD®.
As the global technology leader in direct reduced iron (DRI) - a high-purity product for use in steelmaking, ironmaking and foundry applications - Midrex offers two types of furnaces for iron production and mineral processing.
The MIDREX® Direct Reduction Process employs a shaft furnace to convert iron ore into DRI using natural gas or syngas from coal (MXCOL™). The MIDREX® Process is energy efficient and flexible, producing 60 percent of the world’s DRI annually. Midrex offers three rotary hearth furnace-based technologies: FASTMET® provides for recycling of steel mill by-products with iron unit recovery; FASTMELT® processes steel mill by-products into hot metal or pig iron for steel mill use; and ITmk3® (pronounced "eye-tee" mark 3) produces high quality pig iron nuggets from iron ore.
Our technology development capabilities enable us to discover and commercialize solutions for the evolving steel industry. These efforts enhance our shaft furnace and RHF technologies, which are the industry’s most successful. A major focus of recent efforts has been hot discharge of DRI, transport to the meltshop and hot charging to the EAF. We are currently working to further increase the capacity of the shaft furnace to more than two million tons per year - a technology known as the SUPER MEGAMOD®.
