The Brazilian miner Vale and Ternium will build a briquette plant in Santa Cruz, in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, to help reducing the emissions of Ternium’s slab plant.
The new plant, located next to the slab plant, is expected to reduce by 10 percent the emissions of the steel plant, as the briquettes will reduce the utilization of sinter in the blast furnace.
The sintering process is usually one of the main source of emissions in integrated steel plants.
As the process is well known for its efficiency in the reduction of emissions, the project received from the environmental authority in the state of Rio de Janeiro, INEA, a “fast track” procedure in its approval, with simplified environmental report (RAS), instead of the conventional report (EIA/RIMA).
The project is part of the MoU between Vale and Ternium, signed in 2021, with the objective of developing projects destined to the decarbonization of the steel industry.
The production of briquettes was developed by Vale during ten years, resulting in a process that is more simple, flexible and less intensive in carbon, according to the company.
