Process analysis The government submission documents and engineering specifications have been completed, and detailed planning is in full swing!
Evaluation of the process analysis systems revealed that the electric arc furnace (EAF) and the associated sample delivery points, including the HBI warehouse and SekMet5, could no longer be adequately accommodated in the existing structure that was built in 2004. In order to account for this bottleneck, we decided to build a new fully automated process lab and to extend the building, production systems and pneumatic dispatch system. Modifications in the steelmaking plant also require relocation of the existing pneumatic dispatch system tubes and the installation of new ones.
The government submission documents for this project were submitted to the Linz City Council in January. The engineering specifications were provided to the procurement department. Work is currently focusing intensively on implemetation planning and the intricacies of automation in order to ensure that construction can begin in September 2024.
Our objective is to make the taking, processing and analysis of all samples in the existing units of the steelmaking plant, including the blast furnaces and the sintering plant, as simplie and future-proof as possible and to integrate the new sampling stations into the new layout. All samples, including HBI and steel from the EAF, must be sent through the pneumatic dispatch system to the lab, where processing and analysis must be fully automated.
Since the results of these analyses are crucial to the operation of the blast furnaces and the steelmaking plant seven days a wekk and 24 hours a day, we must find the best compromise between reliability, availability, speed and cost. This automated process lab is now the third generation in Linz, and so we already have a wealth of experience and know how to implement innovative transport logistics.
Transition to the new the steelmaking plant layout will be a particular challenge because the downtime that has been allotted for this feat is limited to 16 hours. On the day scheduled for this transition, all existing pneumatic dispatch system must reconnected and the new software activated. In order to ensure seamless operation following the transition, it will also be necessary to move the processing and analysis equipment is without interrupting their continuous operation.
About greentec steel
The greentec steel project of voestalpine is an ambitious step-by-step plan that makes a valuable contribution to the achievement of the climate goals. As a first step, the voestalpine Group plans to replace two blast furnaces with two electric arc furnaces (EAFs) by the year 2027. The investment volume amounts to roughly 1.5 billion euros.
CO2 emissions can be reduced by up to 30% as early as 2027 by making this switch from the blast furnace to the EAF. This corresponds to a savings of nearly 4 million tons of CO2 per year, amounting to almost 5% of the carbon emissions in Austria. This makes greentec steel the largest climate protection program in Austria.
The two electric-arc furnaces will enable voestalpine to produce roughly 2.5 million tons of carbon-reduced steel by the year 2027, roughly 1.6 million tons in Linz and 850,000 tons in Donawitz.