Story | Products & Services
Midrex RPS Helps SULB DRI Set Daily Production Record
September 30, 2018
On April 9, 2018, the SULB combination HDRI/CDRI plant ramped up production to its highest hourly rate on record, 208.5 tph, which is more than 111% of rated plant capacity, and achieved its highest daily DRI production since the plant was commissioned in 2013. HDRI was delivered to the SULB melt shop with metallization greater than 95% and carbon content of 1.88%.
Midrex General Manager, Plant Operations & Maintenance David Durnovich credited the outstanding accomplishment to the “SULB DRI and Midrex RPS teams working closely together.” Pascal Genest, SULB CEO, agreed and said, “With reinforced joint efforts of Midrex-SULB, we will see even more significant improvements over the course of this year.”
Midrex RPS (Remote Professional Service) is a customer assistance program that assists clients remotely to solve plant issues (“pain points”) or to optimize their plants. By analyzing real time, read only data via a secure connection to the client’s DCS, the Midrex RPS team can provide valuable insight into aspects of plant operations that often are outside the assigned responsibilities of plant personnel.
Midrex RPS is one a several customer-oriented initiatives grouped under MidrexConnect® , an integrated services platform that focuses on asset information and visualization, operational information and client assistance. Midrex currently monitors plant operations data for Nu-Iron (Point Lisas, Trinidad and Tobago) and ArcelorMittal South Africa (Saldanha Bay, South Africa), as well as SULB (Hidd, Bahrain).
About SULB DR Plant
In 2010, SULB company made a contract with Kobe Steel, Ltd. to supply a dual discharge (hot DRI/cold DRI) MIDREX MEGAMOD® Direct Reduced Iron Plant with a rated capacity of 1.5 million tons per year. The DR plant was envisaged to supply HDRI to an adjacent melt shop along with extra CDRI, which could be available for sale in the regional market. SULB was successfully commissioned without any major start-up issues. The DR plant started commercial production of CDRI on February 3, 2013, and began producing HDRI in August 2013. It operates using 100% Bahrain Steel (formerly GIIC) pellets.