Grenzebach BSH GmbH has announced that the start of assembly of the smelter pilot plant at Thyssenkrupp Steel in Duisburg, originally planned for December 2024, will have to be postponed until 2025 due to outstanding building permits. The engineering and building planning work is currently underway. Assembly is currently expected to begin in the summer of 2025.
In March of this year, Thyssenkrupp Steel commissioned Grenzebach BSH with the engineering, construction and commissioning of a DRI single-smelter testing facility, including the associated auxiliary units, at the Duisburg site. The unit for the liquefaction of direct reduced iron (sponge iron, DRI) is part of the research into electric pig iron from hydrogen-based direct reduction. The planned demonstration-scale smelter with a capacity of 100 kg/h DRI is adapted to the direct reduction testing facility. Together, the two units form a research centre for hydrogen-based direct reduction technology at Europe's largest steel location, Thyssenkrupp Steel in Duisburg.
In addition to investigations into CO2 reduction and the product quality of the pig iron produced, another project objective, according to Thyssenkrupp, is to condition the smelting slag so that it can be used as a base material for cement production, comparable to the current use of blast furnace slag in conventional pig iron production. This means that CO2 emissions can also be sustainably reduced in the cement industry, which is difficult to decarbonise. The smelter, which is funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, is part of the research focus on the climate-neutral transformation strategy at the Thyssenkrupp Steel site in Duisburg. The original plan was to start testing different input materials such as direct reduced iron (DRI), alternative carbon carriers and recycled materials for pig iron production from the beginning of 2026.
Scientific direction at VDEh-BFI
The project, under the scientific direction of the VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut (BFI), is intended to demonstrate how the sponge iron produced in direct reduction plants can be liquefied in an innovative smelter and further processed into pig iron. The contract is worth around 7.5 million euros, with the state of NRW covering 65 percent and Thyssenkrupp Steel 35 percent of the total cost of the project. The VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut, based in Düsseldorf, is one of Europe's leading institutes for application-oriented research and development in the process industry. Increasing demands on product quality, production costs, CO2 emissions and plant utilisation are presenting the steel industry with new challenges. The BFI offers customised innovations along the entire steel production process chain, from the input materials to the end product. Topics include CO2 reduction and energy efficiency, process and process chain optimisation, the circular economy, Industry 4.0 and measurement technology.
The BFI accompanies the transformation of the steel industry scientifically in close cooperation with industry and politics, including activities for the experimental and simulative investigation of the technologies as part of publicly funded research projects, as well as collaboration in initiatives such as IN4climate.NRW or scientific work in SCI4climate.NRW.
Source: Grenzebach, Thyssenkrupp Steel
