French company GravitHy has contracted Danieli to supply a direct reduction plant for its planned green HBI production project at Fos-sur-Mer, France.
The facility will use ENERGIRON Zero Reformer technology, jointly developed by Danieli and Tenova, and will have annual production capacity of 2 mln tons of HBI.
The plant will primarily use hydrogen and electricity for the direct reduction process. GravitHy plans to produce low-carbon hydrogen onsite for use as reducing gas, while electric process gas heating will also be incorporated to further reduce emissions from the production process.
The HBI produced at the facility is expected to have metallization of up to 96pct and a carbon content of around 1pct, making it suitable as a low-carbon iron feedstock for steelmaking.
The project is being developed in the industrial port area of Fos-sur-Mer and is aimed at supplying European steelmakers with lower-carbon iron feedstock as the industry transitions toward greener steel production. The plant is expected to begin operations by the end of 2030.