Tata Steel signed Agreement with Rio Tinto for Direct Iron Smelting Process called HIsarna

Tata Steel on 20 April 2011 announced that it signed a licensing agreement for the technological and commercial development of the environmentally friendly direct iron smelting process called HIsarna with British-Australian mining major Rio Tinto.

The agreement between Tata Steel and Rio Tinto covers the pattern how the partners will operate together and share their existing knowledge of the two technologies that are used in the new process. It also decides how benefits from future marketing of the technology will be made available to both parties, as well as to other bodies involved in its development.

A 60000 tonnes a year HIsarna pilot plant funded jointly by ULCOS, the European Commission and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs is being commissioned at Tata Steel's IJmuiden steelworks in the Netherlands.

The HIsarna iron-making process consists of cyclone pre-reduction technology (CCF), owned by Tata Steel, and bath smelting technology (HIsmelt), owned by Rio Tinto. The HIsarna technology has long-term potential to replace conventional blast furnaces, coke ovens and sinter plants and to reduce carbon-di-oxide emissions by more than 50 per cent if combined with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

The combination of CCF and HIsmelt is likely to offer excellent opportunities for the collection and geological storage of carbon-di-oxide, ability to utilise lower-cost raw material feeds and the prospect of energy savings through the elimination of stages in the iron making process.