Sweden-based biomass torrefaction technology developers Bioendev AB has revealed that it has supplied 150 tonnes of torrefied pellets to Sweden-headed steel makers SSAB as part of a national research project to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the steel industry.
Called Bio4Metals, the EU co-funded project is coordinated by Swerea MEFOS, a Swedish research, and development agency specialising in iron and steelmaking, ferrous alloys and base metals – from reduction and smelting to heating and metalworking.
Other partners include SSAB and Bioendev along with several industrial and academic partners. The three-year SEK 10 million (≈ EUR 1.05 million) project started in June 2016 and looks at how biomass could be used in metal production process.
We will map which biomaterials will best fit in the respective process and produce a requirement specification for biometrics for metallurgical processes. Based on it, one can then try to tailor biocoal for specific metallurgical processes using the various pre-treatment techniques that are also being developed in the project, said Lena Sundqvist Ökvist, Swerea MEFOS, and Professor of Process Metallurgy at Luleå University of Technology (LTU).
The biocoal pellets supplied by Bioendev are mixed with other residual materials from steel manufacturing such as coal dust and made into briquettes. These are then charged into the blast furnace at a SSAB facility.
