Economics of HBI Addition to North American Blast Furnaces
AISTECH 2017, Tennessee, Nashville, May 2017
Abstract
Direct reduced iron or hot briquetted iron production in the United States is of increasing interest due to low natural gas prices. Alternative iron units (DRI, HBI or pig iron) can be added to the electric arc furnace (EAF) to dilute scrap residuals or replace purchased scrap, added to the basic oxygen furnace to displace purchased scrap (Bolen, 2014) or added to the blast
furnace to decrease coke rate and increase productivity. This paper considers the economics of production of HBI for addition to the blast furnace. Premium direct reduction grade pellet as well as lower quality, blast furnace grade pellets are considered as feed for the production of HBI.