Under the green transformation project worth USD 2.07 billion, JFE will build a large electric arc furnace (EAF), having production capacity of around 2 million TPA, to manufacture electrical steel sheets and high-tensile steel sheets, which cannot be produced in existing large electric arc furnaces.
Dec 26, 2024
JFE Steel has received government funding worth USD 665.26 million to build an innovative, high-efficiency, large electric arc furnace (EAF) with a production capacity of around 2 million TPA at its West Japan Works steel plant, located in Kurashiki city of Japan.
As per the Japanese company, in order to promote the development of ultra-innovative technologies to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, it had applied in November for “Energy and Manufacturing Process Conversion Support Project in Industries Where Emissions Reduction is Difficult (Project I (Iron and Steel),” a government support measure that utilized GX Economic Transition Bonds and advanced research & development efforts to decarbonize a company’s operations.
Under the green transformation project worth USD 2.07 billion, JFE will equip its EAF with high-quality, high-efficiency melting technology, being developed through the GI Fund project, in addition to its own proprietary technologies, including the use of direct reduced iron (DRI).
By incorporating these technologies and utilizing low-carbon reduced iron, JFE aimed to introduce the world’s largest electric arc furnace and become the first in the world to realize a mass supply system for high-quality, high-performance steel products, such as electrical steel sheets and high-tensile steel sheets, which could not be produced in existing large electric arc furnaces.
The EAF is scheduled to begin operations in the first quarter of the financial year 2028-29.
The company said it was constructing various test facilities at its East Japan Works plant in Chiba area, including a carbon recycling test blast furnace and a small test electric furnace, to conduct demonstration tests related to the ‘GI Fund Project/NEDO project for utilizing Hydrogen in the steelmaking process.’
By concentrating the construction of development facilities in the same area, JFE was promoting the efficient development of ultra-innovative technologies, it added.
