According to Paul Wurth, the furnaces will replace the No. 2 unit at Erdemir’s Ereğli works and the No. 1 unit at its Isdemir works. Erdemir announced the project last year.

The Ereğli furnace is being designed to produce 5,000 tons of hot metal per day. It will have an inner volume of 2,188 m³, 24 tuyeres and two tapholes. It will be plate cooled.

The Isdemir furnace, meanwhile, is being designed to produce 7,900 tons of hot metal daily. It will have an inner volume of 3,587 m³, 32 tuyeres and four tapholes. It will be based on a thin-wall design and will use vertically arranged staves for cooling.

Paul Wurth said it was awarded the projects on an engineering and procurement basis and therefore will supply key components and supervise installation and commissioning.

Its scope of work includes basic engineering of the blast furnace profiles, cooling and lining systems, as well as the design of the stockhouses, top gas cleaning plants, slag granulation plants and cooling systems. Paul Wurth also will provide detail engineering for some components, such as the furnace shells and the cooling system piping.

The furnaces are to be blown-in in March and May 2021.