Natural gas – the cleanest, greenest ironmaking fuel. The MIDREX® Process is the most widely-used technology for the production of all forms of direct reduced iron (DRI) products because they are known for their reliability and hours of continuous operation. Each year, MIDREX® Plants produce nearly 60% of the entire world’s DRI and more than 80% of the DRI produced by all shaft furnace technologies.
Natural gas is playing a major factor in helping many industries cut emissions and improve the world’s overall air quality. To use natural gas for ironmaking, the natural gas needs to be processed, or rather, reformed into a usable reducing gas that is high in hydrogen (H₂) and carbon monoxide (CO) content.
The patented MIDREX® Reformer, cost effectively makes reducing gas for the iron ore reduction reactions that take place in the MIDREX® Shaft Furnace. The MIDREX® Reformer externally generates reducing gas and further optimizes the MIDREX Shaft Furnace performance by converting recycled gas (from the iron reduction reactions) along with fresh natural gas into H₂ and CO to produce additional reducing gas.
The MIDREX Plant is extremely flexible and can accommodate the initial transitions from a carbon to a hydrogen economy.
While the natural gas-based MIDREX Process, paired with an EAF has the lowest CO2 emission of any steelmaking route using iron ore, there is room to further decrease emissions by using hydrogen as a fuel and chemical reactant in the process.
Midrex offers technology that bridges the transition from 100% natural gas to 100% hydrogen direct reduction:
MIDREX Flex, which provides the flexibility to operate on any mixture of natural gas and hydrogen (up to 100% hydrogen) with some low-risk modifications.
For additional details, please read our Technical Brochure.
For greenfield plants designed specifically for up to 100% hydrogen operation, see MIDREX H2 technology.
Each year, MIDREX® Plants produce nearly 60% of the entire world’s DRI and more than 80% of the world's low CO2 DRI produced by all shaft furnace technologies.
Download BrochureARCELORMITTAL HAMBURG
ArcelorMittal commissions Midrex to design demonstration plant for hydrogen steel production in Hamburg
In preparation for the future, ArcelorMittal will build a demonstration plant at ArcelorMittal Hamburg (Germany) in collaboration with Midrex. This 100,000 tons per year module will utilize 100% hydrogen as the reductant first sourced from the existing MIDREX plant. Green hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources can be added or substituted at later stages.
Read Press ReleaseLEARN MORE ABOUT THE MIDREX AND ARCELORMITTAL PROJECT
