On 20th of December 2015, the new ENERGIRON High Productivity Direct Reduction Plant, installed in Ezz Rolling Mills (ERM) – Egypt, successfully passed the Performance test at the first trial just one month after the plant start-up.
The new Cold DRI plant, featuring the ENERGIRON III technology, produced its first DRI on the 22nd of November and passed the Hot Test on the 2nd of December.
After the Hot test completion, the plant, ready to increase its productivity, has been forced to work at reduced rate, due to limitations in the natural gas availability from the national network.
The natural gas full availability was restored on the 14th of December and the plant has been successfully and quickly ramped up to its full productivity, allowing to declare the performance test start on the 15th of December only 13 days after the Hot Test completion.
The test lasted 120 hours, during which the plant performed well above its target figures.
The productivity was 112% of the guaranteed value showing a metallization >94% and a carbon content >3%, a feature achievable only with the ENERGIRON technology.
Natural gas specific consumption of 2,57 Gcal/t and Electric Energy of 30 kWh/t complete the picture of an optimized technology with respect to overall energy consumption.
One of the most peculiar characteristics of the ENERGIRON is the raw material yield. The ERM plant showed an impressive ratio of 1.37 t of oxide per t of DRI and is able to process oxide pellets or lumps screened at 3.2 mm, minimizing the rejected portion.