Technological breakthrough

The recent signing of the licensing agreement by Dr Debashish Bhattacharjee, Group Director, Tata Steel Research, Development & Technology (RD&T) with Rio Tinto is a giant leap in the field of technology. It involves technological and commercial development of the environmentally friendly direct iron smelting process called HIsarna. According to the agreement, both parties will work together, sharing their existing knowledge of the two technologies that are combined in the new process. The benefits from future successful marketing of technology will be made available to both parties, as well as to the members of ULCOS – a consortium of European steelmakers in whose name the project is being carried out. Funded jointly by ULCOS, the European Commission and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, a HIsarna pilot plant is being commissioned at Tata Steel's Ijmuiden steelworks in the Netherlands. The 60,000-tonne plant was intended to allow the two constituent technologies to be tested in combination. The plant demonstrates one of the first and most promising ways in which the European steel industry is developing breakthrough technologies in response to the challenge of climate change.