(Updates with details, comment and background)
March 23 (Reuters) - BHP Group on Thursday
signed an agreement with an engineering and project management
firm Hatch to design an electric smelting furnace pilot plant in
Australia in an attempt to slash its greenhouse gas emissions to
zero by 2050.
The facility will help lower carbon dioxide intensity in
steel production using iron ore from the global miner's Pilbara
mines. The plant will be able to produce steel from iron ore
using renewable electricity and hydrogen replacing coking coal.
Large mining companies have been partnering with
technology firms and others in the supply chain to find ways to
reduce their carbon footprint and help reduce emissions in some
of the most energy-intensive industries.
"The steel industry has identified ESF as a viable option to
use a wider range of raw materials, and steel companies globally
are looking to build commercial-scale ESF plants as part of
their CO2 emission-reduction roadmaps," said Vandita Pant, chief
commercial officer, BHP.
Last October, the mining giant teamed up with steelmaker
ArcelorMittal and two others to test a new technology to
reduce carbon emissions in steelmaking at two plants in Belgium
and North America.
(Reporting by Navya Mittal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi
Majumdar and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
