Whyalla | Developments & News

Developments in Regional South Australia. Including Port Lincoln, Victor Harbor, Wallaroo, Gawler and Mount Barker.
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claybro
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Re: Whyalla | Developments & News

#91 Post by claybro » Tue Apr 04, 2023 5:29 pm

SBD wrote:
Tue Apr 04, 2023 1:10 pm
The Steel Wikipedia article starts "Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon ..."

Coal contains carbon. Hydrogen does not. To continue to make steel from iron ore (or scrap iron), a source of metallurgical carbon will be required. Is this a destination for all that stockpiled soft plastic? Will that have a high enough carbon content and consistent enough chemical content to use as a substitute for coal as an ingredient?
Isn't the article referring to fuelling the FURNACE, and not the components of steel production itself?

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Re: Whyalla | Developments & News

#92 Post by mattblack » Wed Apr 05, 2023 12:30 pm

SBD wrote:
Tue Apr 04, 2023 1:10 pm
The Steel Wikipedia article starts "Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon ..."

Coal contains carbon. Hydrogen does not. To continue to make steel from iron ore (or scrap iron), a source of metallurgical carbon will be required. Is this a destination for all that stockpiled soft plastic? Will that have a high enough carbon content and consistent enough chemical content to use as a substitute for coal as an ingredient?
Please do some research before posting blatant crap.

From AFR. Should clear up your desktop thought bubble.

Sanjeev Gupta in $500m push to make Whyalla steelworks ‘greener’

British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance will shift to an electric arc furnace at the Whyalla steelworks in SA, ditching coal-based steelmaking by late 2025.

It has put in an order with Italian giant Danieli for the electric arc furnace. GFG also wants to build a direct reduction iron plant to process magnetite from a nearby mine in the Middleback Ranges.

The capital cost of the electric arc furnace is estimated to be up to $500m. GFG will seek to use a $50m grant on offer from the SA Government since 2016 for any large upgrade to the steelworks.

British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta says steel customers are increasingly willing to pay a “green premium” for steel produced without coal-based steel making, and that shift will only gather momentum.

His global entity GFG Alliance will spend up to $500 million on a new electric arc furnace at the Whyalla steelworks in South Australia as it phases out coal-based steel making, which has been in use since the mid-1960s.

Mr Gupta said on Tuesday that Liberty Steel, GFG’s steel unit, had ordered an electric arc furnace from Italian manufacturer Danieli, and that it aims to have it running at Whyalla by late 2025, a big step forward in the company’s “green steel” ambitions.

The Whyalla steelworks was bought by Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance in 2017. BHP built the steel plant, which has used coal-based processes for steel making since 1965. Ben Searcy

The modernisation will cut direct carbon emissions from steel making at Whyalla by about 90 per cent.

Mr Gupta also revealed longer-range plans to establish a direct reduction iron plant to process magnetite ore from GFG’s nearby mine in the Middleback Ranges. The overall investment is likely to top $1 billion across both projects.

He said industries such as car manufacturing and renewable energy infrastructure, such as wind farm towers, were at the forefront of wanting steel made with lower carbon emissions and were willing to pay more for it. “It’s beginning to happen, and it will continue on,” he said.

Electric arc furnaces make steel from melted scrap metal instead of iron ore. The Whyalla steelworks has used coking coal ovens and a blast furnace since its inception in 1965, when it was owned by BHP.

Mr Gupta said the 160-tonne electric arc furnace would lift steel making capacity at the Whyalla plant from 1 million tonnes annually to about 1.5 million tonnes.

Liberty Steel is one of the 215 highest carbon emitters under the federal government’s safeguard mechanism scheme.

Mr Gupta said GFG was a pioneer in wanting to cut emissions, and in favour of the safeguard mechanism as a tool for helping companies to steadily do that.

But it was crucial the federal government also moved quickly on a carbon border adjustment mechanism so that local manufacturers had a “level playing field” and were not penalised by higher costs in meeting the safeguard requirements, when offshore players were not subject to the same rules.

An adjustment similar to the European Union’s measures was needed to prevent carbon leakage to other countries. “Even for steel it’s a problem,” he said.

The hefty Whyalla investment comes after a rocky time for Mr Gupta’s GFG entity, which has 30,000 employees and runs steel plants in Europe, the UK and the US.

Mr Gupta’s Liberty Steel in November said it had taken a big step forward in refinancing most of the $5 billion that the collapsed Greensill empire had previously lent to his wider group. An in-principle agreement was signed then for a restructuring for most of the Greensill debt, giving GFG extra breathing space.

He said on Tuesday the financial woes of Credit Suisse, which was forced into a merger with UBS last month, was not hindering the refinancing. “We’re busy executing it,” he said.

Longer-term horizon

Mr Gupta said the investment in the electric arc furnace and associated infrastructure would be funded by Liberty Steel, but it would also apply for a $50 million grant first put on the table by the South Australian government in 2016 when administrators KordaMentha were running the steelworks and trying to find a buyer after the collapse of its parent company, Arrium.

The electric arc furnace will replace the existing coke ovens and blast furnace at Whyalla.

Mr Gupta is also eyeing a second project with a longer-term horizon for the Whyalla precinct. He wants to build a 1.8 million tonne per annum direct reduction plant (DRP) that would process local magnetite ore to produce low carbon iron.

Under those plans, the plant would initially use a mix of natural gas and green hydrogen as the reducing agent, before transitioning to green hydrogen as it becomes available at scale.

Mr Gupta said that low carbon iron can be fed into the electric arc furnace with scrap, to produce steel for Australian infrastructure projects, and to service the growing global demand for low carbon iron.

He aims to use the low carbon iron as a feedstock for Liberty’s other electric arc furnace steel plants in Australia and offshore. “The potential for Whyalla has no bounds,” he said.

The 2017 acquisition of the former Arrium by GFG also included an iron ore mine in the Middleback Ranges near Whyalla. GFG aims to lift magnetite ore mining from 2.5 million tonnes a year to 15 million tonnes a year by 2026.

Federal Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the Whyalla plan was “exactly the kind of investment that industry will make” following the safeguard mechanism reforms.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said the Liberty Steel plans were a big plus for the region. His government is funding a $593 million green hydrogen plant in the Whyalla precinct, which has attracted 29 bidders for the construction phase.

Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue is understood to be one of the bidders to build the green hydrogen plant in Whyalla.

SBD
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Re: Whyalla | Developments & News

#93 Post by SBD » Thu Apr 06, 2023 8:52 pm

Thank you for a clear assessment of my question: where does the carbon come from to make new steel from old iron and low carbon hematite? AFR said it won’t be from coking coal.

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Re: Whyalla | Developments & News

#94 Post by mattblack » Fri Apr 07, 2023 9:22 pm

SBD wrote:
Thu Apr 06, 2023 8:52 pm
Thank you for a clear assessment of my question: where does the carbon come from to make new steel from old iron and low carbon hematite? AFR said it won’t be from coking coal.
See article here

https://www.google.com/amp/s/stockhead. ... een/%3famp

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Re: Whyalla | Developments & News

#95 Post by PD2/20 » Sat Apr 08, 2023 11:38 am

SBD wrote:
Thu Apr 06, 2023 8:52 pm
Thank you for a clear assessment of my question: where does the carbon come from to make new steel from old iron and low carbon hematite? AFR said it won’t be from coking coal.
The question you raise regarding the proposed developments at Whyalla is a valid one. The proposals for Whyalla are twofold: The installation of an electric arc furnace (EAF) and the longer term adoption of direct reduction smelting of iron ore.

The current coke based smelting of ore produces carbon rich pig iron which has to have its carbon content reduced by the basic oxygen process to < 2% to yield steel. However EAF's are suited to production of steel from recycled steel and iron.

The direct reduction smelting processes have more stringent ore quality requirements (as described in the Stockyard article cited by Matt). However direct reduction produces carbon deficient iron which requires the addition of carbon to yield steel. Your original question relates to the source of this additional carbon. A recent article addresses this issue:
https://reneweconomy.com.au/greener-ste ... car-tyres/.

It in turn references a 2021 paper with the technical background and discussion of various sources of carbon including plastics:
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/11/2/222.

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Re: Whyalla | Developments & News

#96 Post by SBD » Sat Apr 08, 2023 11:54 am

PD2/20 wrote:
Sat Apr 08, 2023 11:38 am
SBD wrote:
Thu Apr 06, 2023 8:52 pm
Thank you for a clear assessment of my question: where does the carbon come from to make new steel from old iron and low carbon hematite? AFR said it won’t be from coking coal.
The question you raise regarding the proposed developments at Whyalla is a valid one. The proposals for Whyalla are twofold: The installation of an electric arc furnace (EAF) and the longer term adoption of direct reduction smelting of iron ore.

The current coke based smelting of ore produces carbon rich pig iron which has to have its carbon content reduced by the basic oxygen process to < 2% to yield steel. However EAF's are suited to production of steel from recycled steel and iron.

The direct reduction smelting processes have more stringent ore quality requirements (as described in the Stockyard article cited by Matt). However direct reduction produces carbon deficient iron which requires the addition of carbon to yield steel. Your original question relates to the source of this additional carbon. A recent article addresses this issue:
https://reneweconomy.com.au/greener-ste ... car-tyres/.

It in turn references a 2021 paper with the technical background and discussion of various sources of carbon including plastics:
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/11/2/222.
Thank you. They address the question I thought I asked.

I was wrong on the detail of soft plastic, but on the right track to be reusing high-carbon waste that otherwise becomes landfill.

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Re: Whyalla | Developments & News

#97 Post by 1NEEDS2POST » Sun Apr 16, 2023 5:32 pm

How will the EAF be powered? Can it be shut down when renewable energy is not available or do these EAFs need to run 24/7?

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Re: Whyalla | Developments & News

#98 Post by mattblack » Fri Jun 02, 2023 1:31 pm

New address by Gupta on Green steel future

https://youtu.be/ifX_V1W2vJo

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Re: Whyalla | Developments & News

#99 Post by PeFe » Tue Feb 27, 2024 1:53 pm

1NEEDS2POST wrote:
Sun Apr 16, 2023 5:32 pm
How will the EAF be powered? Can it be shut down when renewable energy is not available or do these EAFs need to run 24/7?
I presume Gupta has energy supply deal from a "supplier" this may involve gas.

Gupta can always go down the BHP road to be supplied by 100% renewables. Their deal involves 2 wind farms, a solar farm and a battery who have a constant 70mw supply to BHP......if the wind drops off the battery makes up the shortfall.

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