At the end of March ArcelorMittal Poland is going to stop blast furnace no. 2 in its unit in Dabrowa Gornicza. One of the two blast furnaces operating in Poland will undergo a major modernisation. The cost of the undertaking exceeds PLN 720 m.
This will be the most significant blast furnace modernisation of the conducted in Poland to date. For ArcelorMittal Poland it will also be the largest single investment project since the construction of the hot strip mill in Kraków – says Frederik Van De Velde, CEO of ArcelorMittal Poland.
Apart from the scope of works usually conducted during overhauls, such as i.a. replacement of carbon blocks in the furnace hearth, ArcelorMittal Poland is also going to take care of aspects related to environmental protection.
- Thanks to completion of R&D projects, pilot installations will be set up in the blast furnace – closed circuit cooling system with innovative construction of cooling staves as well as a modern gas cleaning plant. The implementation of those undertakings will allow us to i.a. increase the efficiency of the use of cooling water as well as decrease the amount of waste. It will also allow further use of blast furnace gas as fuel. In the cast house we are going to build a new dedusting system, which will not only translate into the improvement of working conditions for our employees, but also into lower dust emissions from the installation – Frederik Van De Velde explains.
Another action lowering the environmental footprint of the furnace is the replacement of tuyere sets. The new sets, thanks to two lances, will be able to consume coke oven or natural gas as well as pulverised coal. This will allow the company to cut down CO2 emissions.
Apart from the environmental aspects, an important objective of this modernisation is also increasing the reliability of the installation. This will be achieved thanks to the modernisation of the automation system with the installation of the new generation of drives and the new burdening system, which will allow better control of burden feeding.
- Steelmaking is faced with a significant challenge of decarbonisation. ArcelorMittal wants to be carbon neutral by 2050. We are working on innovative technologies while at the same time reducing CO2 emissions from existing installations. Steel is a material necessary for the decarbonisation of other sectors of the economy – not only is it used in sustainable transport, but also for the construction of renewable energy infrastructure, among them wind turbines and photovoltaic panels – comments Sanjay Samaddar, chairman of the board of directors of ArcelorMittal Poland. – This huge investment is the best evidence for our commitment to steelmaking in Poland – while we continue our journey towards decarbonization – he summarises.
