Italy, Coordinator
Acciaierie d'Italia S.p.A. (AdI) is the main Italian steel company and the biggest integrated steel
route in Europe. It is specialized in carbon steel flat products, with a production capacity close to 8
Mt of crude steel per year. At the moment AdI is a joint venture with 62% of private capital and 38% of
public capital, and it employs over 10,000 people. AdI is made up of three main facilities placed in
Taranto, Genoa and Novi Ligure, and other small plants like Salerno and Racconigi and services centres
like Paderno Dugnano and Marghera.
The Taranto plant, which extends over 15,540,000 square meters, is the productive heart of AdI located
in an absolute central position in the Mediterranean production system. AdI has an enormous experience
on steel processes, managing up to 4 blast furnaces, one of which (AFO5) is among the largest in Europe,
continuously improving aiming to energy efficiency, polluting emissions reduction and use of renewable
sources, developing and applying cutting-edge technologies. The complex management of real steel
off-gases, for feeding an internal power plant and furnaces, is an example of the special skills in
Taranto’ site. AdI runs six BOF converters (around 2,000t total) coupled with five continuous casting
machines with a total casting length of 300m, with an overall capability up to 8 Mt/y of strips and
plates, that be also supplied as coated via both cold and hot coating processes. AdI supply chain uses
up to four piers in a deep-water sea harbor to manage feeding and shipping, two 80m high sheltered raw
materials stock houses (about 360,000 sqm) and internal coking and sintering plants for BF charge
making.
The sustainability and high quality of AdI's materials processing responds to customers’ needs:
automotive, carpentry and civil, mechanical, infrastructure construction, energy, household appliances,
packaging and the food sector. In addition to finished steel products destined for both the national and
international market, it feeds the company production system and, through this, large areas of the
entire national metalworking industry. AdI aspires to have a key role in the development of innovative
solutions for a sustainable future.
To be ready for this challenge, a new Research and Development Centre has been established inside the
Taranto steel plant. The Research Centre is highly business oriented, ensuring a shorter time to market
and improved competitiveness in a variety of sectors.
Challenges addressed by Taranto Research Centre are multifaceted:
- Support the decarbonization plan of the group;
- Improve the environmental footprint of steel processes;
- Promote the circular economy and the valorization of production residuals;
- Develop optimized and new process & products technical solutions;
- Adapt processes to the new steel products;
- Boost the energy transition and efficiency;
- Drive the Digitization of the plant toward Industry 4.0.
Germany, Partner
THYSSENKRUPP STEEL EUROPE AG is part of the company thyssenkrupp A.G. which is an internationally
operating group of companies developing and producing technology-based solutions for future customer and
market requirements. The company is employing more than 100,000 people with their footprint across 56
countries. Thyssenkrupp Steel business (tkSE) located in Duisburg produces about 11 million tons of
crude steel per year and is one of the leading suppliers of high-grade flat steel for innovative
solutions and demanding applications. The range of services extends from customer-specific materials
solutions to materials-related services.
The coal and coke research activities are lead and conducted by the team of Coal & Coke Technology
Department which is as part of Competence Center Metallurgy (CCM) of tkSE employing 20 skilled and
experienced employees. The main strategic objective that governs the daily business of the coal and coke
R&D team is to maintain the competitiveness of coke production at tkSE with tailor-made solutions
delivered in the form of the value-in-use R&D projects to the coke plant Schwelgern, the operations
proprietary to tkSE.
In addition to their captive R&D projects the team delivers their services in other areas such as daily
routine support to coke plant Schwelgern including the analysis of incoming coals and industrial coke
plant blends, technical assistance to tkSE Procurement in coal and coke-oriented decisions,
participation in international projects, and co-operation with universities and third parties on various
topics related to cokemaking.
The Coal & Coke Technology Department in tkSE /CCM operates various types of laboratory scale equipment
with the main focus on coal rheology and coal & coke petrography.
The pilot scale facilities include 10-kg carbonization retort, 60-kg movable wall oven, and sole-heated
oven; these are operated with the main focus on the coal performance in the course of carbonization
process and the quality of produced coke.
In addition to in-house equipment, facilities, analysis and test work, the team has access to other
technical equipment available on request within the entire portfolio of research and testing activities
of tkSE the services of which will also be a part of the project work.
Italy, Partner
Paul Wurth Italia S.p.A., based in Italy, is member of the Paul Wurth Group, headquartered in Luxembourg
since its creation back in 1870. PW can look back on 150 years of excellence, during which it has
developed into an international engineering company and an established technology provider for the
global ironmaking industry. Combining wide experience with the capacity to continuously innovate, PW is
today a leading player in the design and supply of the full range of technological solutions for the
primary stage of integrated steelmaking.
PW is part of the larger SMS Group (with more than 11000 employees), a family-owned group headquartered
in Germany and a global, adding partner for the metal industry.
Presently, PW is focusing on developing innovative solutions for leading the transformation of the steel
industry towards carbon-free steel production. With more than 1500 employees and entities in around 20
countries worldwide, PW has regularly participated in EU projects with the primary focus on the
modernization of iron and steel production processes.
In this proposal, Paul Wurth Italia will take care of the feasibility study for Process scalability and
industrialization (WP6), taking advantage of its expertise in design, engineering, procurement and
construction of state-of-the-art coke oven batteries and relevant by-products plants. Further
contributes by Paul Wurth Italia are planned in the development and implementation of digital tools for
an intelligent control of the coking process (WP5) both at pilot (WP3) and industrial (WP4) levels.
The above activities will be carried out in cooperation with other partners (AdI, RINA-CSM, TK), as
required by the specific tasks.
Paul Wurth Italia will also contribute to other activities, including analysis of the risk and solutions
related to the industrial trials and execution of the industrial tests, evaluation of relevant operation
results (WP4) and development of a sustainable profitable implementation plan for the integrated
application of decarbonisation technologies in iron and steel plants, along with evaluation of future
green steel scenarios.
Italy, Partner
RINA CONSULTING - Centro Sviluppo Materiali S.p.A. (RINA-CSM Is a fully private innovation centre with
extensive experience for the development and application of innovative processes and materials. Today
CSM is part of RINA Group that is a global provider of classification, certification, testing,
inspection and training services to assist clients in a wide range of business sectors as Marine,
Energy, Transport & Infrastructures, Business Assurance, Environment and Innovation. CSM is a leading
centre for applied research founded in 1963 by Italy’s major steel industry. Its research activities are
mainly related to the modelling and design of materials and products, development of innovative pilot
plants and reduction of environmental impact.
With a staff of about 300 researchers, CSM is a private enterprise that ranks amongst Europe’s top
Materials Research Centres. The industrial sectors of main interest to the Company are: Energy and
environment, Iron and steel, Oil and gas, Aerospace and defence, Mechanics and transport. In particular
CSM will be mainly involved in the project with the different researchers to investigate the use of
biomass in the cokemaking production with the support of process and research departments according to
the envisaged industrial applications.
In Italy, CSM is active member of national associations and umbrella organizations (Confindustria, AIRI,
APRE), and works with the main Italian research bodies (ENEA, CNR, CIRA) and academic world. CSM is
high-level participant also in the European Technological Platforms like ESTEP (steel) and EuMat
(advanced materials) and also co-founder of RIES (Research Initiative European Steel) for the
coordination among the main iron and steel research centres in Europe.
The traditional presence of CSM as the Italian reference pole in European research (RFCS and Framework
Programmes) results in hundreds of international collaboration agreements/contracts. Currently CSM has
more than 80 Grant Agreements active with the European Commission.
