Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau and Danieli Corus have signed contracts to modernize the blast furnace number 01 of the Ouro Branco plant, located in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
The project includes a new furnace hearth, tuyere ring and bosh area, and the cast house runners cooling system.
According to Danieli, the new hearth design is based on large carbon blocks and is expected to achieve an operational lifetime of more than 15 years.
The cast house runners will be engineered to overcome thermal issues, improve accessibility between the main runner and taphole, and reduce the complexity of the back-up layers of the existing runners.
The blast furnace number 01 of Ouro Branco has a pig iron production capacity of 3.0 million mt per year. It is not clear for how long the unit will be idled for the revamping.
