Metso has continued to invest in its Circored green iron technology, opening a pilot plant in Germany, after agreeing earlier this year to sell Circored and the rest of its ferrous metals business to SMS group.
Inauguration of a Circored pre-reduction pilot plant in Frankfurt “reflects Metso’s commitment to advancing low-carbon technologies and supporting the global transition to fossil-free steelmaking”, the Finnish company said this week.
German’s SMS agreed in May to acquire Metso’s ferrous metals business.
Circored is a hydrogen-based process for direct reduction of iron ore fines to produce direct reduced iron (DRI) or hot briquetted iron (HBI) that can be fed directly to an electric arc furnace. Hydrogen-based direct reduction using fine ore instead of pellets is an alternative to traditional blast-furnace or basic oxygen furnace (BF/BOF) steelmaking which accounts for the bulk of global steel output and a big portion of the estimated 7% of total carbon emissions coming from the world’s iron and steel industry.
Metso says Circored can eliminate the need for expensive and energy intensive pelletising.
It says the Frankfurt pilot plant enables continuous pre-reduction using hydrogen as the sole reducing agent. It integrates pre-heating, reduction, gas cleaning and recirculation systems for hydrogen and dust, and features electric heaters to support nearly zero-carbon operation.
“This pilot plant is a significant step in demonstrating the readiness of the Circored technology,” Metso DRI director Parizat Pandey said.
“It allows us to validate process parameters and support our customers in their transition to low-carbon steelmaking”.
Pandey said the pilot plant could test a range of iron ore types and provide process data for engineering future commercial-scale plants. It would also help define the operating window for different ore qualities.
The Metso-SMS transaction is not expected to close until the first quarter of 2026.
