FINEX TECHNOLOGY

No Coke Options
• Direct Reduction (Solid state reduction; Product-
DRI/HBI/Iron Nuggets)
– Natural Gas Based
– Coal Based
• Smelting Reduction (SR) Processes (Reduction & Melting;
Product- Liquid Iron)
– Single Stage (Melting & reduction in one vessel)
– Two Stage (Reduction in one vessel, melting in 2nd vessel)
• SR processes more relevant for BOF based Integrated Steel
Plants as they can produce hot metal. DR processes for EAF
based steel plants or as scrap substitute.
 Available Smelting-Reduction
Technologies
• ROMELT (Single stage)
• TECNORED (Single stage)
• AusIron (Single stage)
• COREX (Two stage)
• FINEX (Two stage)
• HIsmelt (Single/Two stage)
COREX
COREX – PROCESS FLOW

DRI
 COREX
• Developed by Siemens VAI. Commercially most
successful SR technology.
• Plants operating in South Africa (Mittal-Saldanha),
India (JSW), Korea (POSCO) – Recent addition in
China (Bao Steel C-3000 module, capacity 1.5 Mtpa)

• At JSW steel
– Total fuel rate of around 950 kg/thm out of which coke is
200-220 kg/thm. All the non coking coal is imported.
– 100% pellet charging.
– Oxygen consumption of around 550 Nm3/thm
– C-2000 Module, best monthly rate of 78332 t (equivalent
annual rate of 0.94 Mtpa)
– Current annual production rate of ~0.85 Mtpa
 COREX (contd..)
– Typical H.M chemistry C~4.0%, Si- 0.5-0.9%, S-0.025-0.07%, P-
0.13-0.19%, Temp. – 1480-1515 oC- Chemistry & Temp. roughly
those obtained in BFs.
• Limitations:
– Can’t use fines directly
– Coal – no caking tendency & proper balance between volatile
matter and fixed carbon. Non-coking coals having too high VM
or too low fixed carbon cannot be used.
– Contrary to popular belief needs coke in Reduction shaft. (~20%)
– The degree of post-combustion in the smelter-gasifier (SG) is
low. Proper balance is to be struck between heat requirement in
the SG vessel for melting and the CO+H2 content in the gas for
the reduction shaft.
 COREX (contd..)
– Unless the net export gas from the plant can be utilised very
economically (1650 Nm3/thm; calorific value 1800
Kcal/Nm3)- the process becomes unviable.
– For this reason probably Baosteel has opted for a combined
cycle power plant along with the COREX unit.
– As in the case in BFs, over 90% of the phosphorous goes to
the hot metal. Phosphorous content of ore and coal should
be low.
COREX-3000 at Bao Steel, China Nominal Capacity –
1.5 Mtpa
FINEX
 FINEX
• Jointly developed by VAI & the Research Institute of
Industrial Science & Technology, Korea.
• The process developed by POSCO to overcome the
shortcomings of COREX i.e. to utilise fines generated in
the COREX process (-8mm fine ore and -6 mm coal fines)
as well as the export gas.
• Fine ore is pre-heated and reduced to DRI in a four stage
fluidised bed system that precedes the COREX like melter-
gasifier.
• Reactors R4 & R3 primarily for ore preheating. R2 fine ore
reduced to a degree of 30%. In R1 final reduction to 90%.
• Operational pressure in R1 to R4 is 4-5 bar.
FINEX – Process Flow

R4
R3
R2

R1
 FINEX (contd..)
• Discharge from R1 is in the form of fines and are
compacted before charging in melter-gasifier.
• Commercial plant of 1.5 Mtpa started in POSCO in
May’07. Reportedly spent US$1.14 billion (Rs. 4500
crore) in development and commercialization.
• H.M quality similar to COREX.
• POSCO not interested in ‘selling’ this technology.
They want to install the process only in their plants
(planned in POSCO India). However, Siemens-VAI
claims that they can provide this technology
(Technology features in their Iron making brochure).
 Pohang Steel - FINEX

View of Finex Plant (left: Melter Gasifier Tower, right: Fluidized Bed Reactor
Tower), Pohang, Korea
 SR Processes - Comparison
Parameter COREX FINEX HIsmelt
Level of Development Fully 1st 1.5 Mtpa 1st 0.8 Mtpa
commercial comm. plant comm. plant
in 2007 in 2005
Ability to use I/O fines No Yes Yes
HM quality Similar to BF Similar to BF Low ‘P’ & ‘Si’
and high ‘S’
Viability dependent on Yes Yes No
efficient use of off-gas
O2 consumption, Nm3/thm ~550 ~550 ~300
Coal+coke consumption, 950 (~200 850 750
kg/thm coke)
Ease of obtaining Commercially Uncertain Available
technology available
Use of BF infrastructure No No Yes- Stoves,
TB, GCP
 Project Overview
(As proposed by POSCO)

• 
Classification Main Contents
• Scheme
Project Joint Venture between SAIL and POSCO
Capacity 1.5 million ton per year
Products Billet 1.5 million ton per year
Operation Start- up D+ 33 month from ground breaking steelworks
Location Bokaro
E stimated CAPE X ? – FINE X- US$ 1 bilion + Power Plant & Oxygen –
US$ 0.4 billion