POSCO opens R&D center for carbon neutrality
POSCO is gearing up its workforce and manufacturing plants to produce environmentally cleaner steel products and contribute to the country’s 2050 goal of trying to reach carbon neutrality, the country’s biggest steelmaker said Tuesday.
Systemic upgrades are being implemented to help the company introduce its new method of making ironbased products in a more eco-friendly way, named HyRex, which stands for hydrogen reduction ironmaking. The company improved upon the conventional method, which used heat and gas generated from coal by using hydrogen to convert fine iron ore into direct reduced iron, which is then put into an electric smelting furnace to produce hot metal.
The company has introduced a new carbon neutrality team that reports to its CEO, Lee Si-woo. Its newly expanded Carbon Neutral Strategy department is headed by Kim Hee, the company’s first woman engineering executive.
Earlier this year, the company launched a team dedicated to HyREX, which will plan the technology’s testing facilities. It follows the company’s completion of a new low-carbon smelting laboratory last year.
POSCO’s HyREX initiative last month introduced a new research center at the company’s key steel plant in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. The new facility handles everything from investment procurement to R&D and plant design. The center will be completed by 2027. The HyREX testing facility — with a production capacity of 300,000 tons of steel — will pioneer ways to commercialize the technology.
“We strive to become the first mover in the new age in iron by developing HyREX technology and replacing carbon with hydrogen,” Lee said. “I hope we successfully implement the technology based on our experience in commercializing Finex fluidized bed technology and developing electric melting furnace technology.”
The company has also begun building an electric furnace for its other steel manufacturing plant in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, by investing 600 billion won ($451 million). The new furnace, with a production capacity of 2.5 million tons per year, is scheduled for completion by 2025 and go into commercial operation the following year.
POSCO expects that the new plant will see a reduction of 3.5 million tons of carbon emissions from its traditional smelting furnace. It will be able to manufacture various types of higher-quality steel, allowing the company to better cater to its customers, including those overseas. Some 160,000 workers are now involved in building the new furnace, the company said.