Australia-based miner Rio Tinto has announced that it plans to develop a larger-scale pilot plant for low-carbon iron-making to further assess its potential to help decarbonize the steel value chain, after a small-scale pilot plant in Germany proved the effectiveness of its low-carbon iron-making process using ores from its mines in Australia.
The plant will have a capacity of one mt per hour. The designing of the pilot plant is underway and the company is considering suitable locations for its construction.
The process, known as BioIron™, uses raw biomass instead of metallurgical coal as a reductant and microwave energy to convert Pilbara iron ore to metallic iron in the steelmaking process. BioIron has the potential to support near-zero carbon steel-making, and can result in net negative emissions if linked with carbon capture and storage.
