The IMTC and CMTC met jointly 1 February 2024, Pittsburgh, Pa., USA.
The Ironmaking and Cokemaking Technology Committees met on Thursday, 1 February 2024, in Pittsburgh, Pa., USA, before the Eastern States Blast Furnace and Coke Oven Association meeting.
The group had a great turnout with many technical presentations. After discussing committee business related to AISTech sessions, roundups for both committees, and safety statistics, they had six presentations.
Aram Hermiz gave a review of the recent AIST Cokemaking Study Tour to Japan. Brenda Petrilena gave an overview of the regional clean hydrogen hubs recently announced by the U.S. Department of Energy. Ty Okosun discussed hydrogen use in the iron and steel industry with a focus on blast furnaces. Steve Woodard and Jami Patrick discussed carbon capture technologies and environmental justice respectively. Finally, Joe Morey reviewed a possible future for blast furnace ironmaking.

Members of the Ironmaking Technology Committee toured Cleveland-Cliffs Burns Harbor on 26 September 2023 (left to right): Joe Morey, Jason Entwistle, Paul Mather, Husain Tapia, Brian Black, Lucas Melton and Cody Hollingshead.

The IMTC met 26 September 2023, Hammond, Ind., USA
The IMTC was hosted by the Center for Innovation Through Visualization and Simulation (CIVS) at Purdue University Northwest. The group covered their committee business including AISTech 2024 session development, awards planning for the three awards that the committee gives out, as well as a great safety discussion.
There were four presentations during the meeting. SMS group presented on EASyMelt (Electric-Assisted Syngas smelter) technology as well as the slag granulation plant at Cleveland-Cliffs Burns Harbor. CIVS gave a presentation on computational fluid dynamics modeling of shaft-level tuyere injection, and BP presented on hydrogen production and supply from the nearby Whiting refinery.
The committee also participated in two tours during this meeting. First the group met at Morrison Construction Co. to see the mock-up designed to practice stave replacement as well as their workshop. The group was then able to tour the Cleveland-Cliffs Burns Harbor facility, including D Blast Furnace.

Jesse Carreau (right) presented Kyle Ferron (left) with the IMTC service plaque.

The IMTC met 8 May 2023, Detroit, MI, USA.
The following officers were elected:

• Chair: Joe Morey - U. S. Steel – Gary Works

• Vice Chair: Brian Black - Paul Wurth

• Papers Chair: Jesse Carreau - Allied Mineral Products Inc.

• Papers Vice Chair: Achinta Haldar - Stelco Inc.

• Young Professional Chair: Husain Tapia - ArcelorMittal Dofasco G.P.

• Roundup Chair: Stuart Street - Cleveland-Cliffs Dearborn Works

• Decarbonization Liaison: Megha Jampani - Hatch Associates Consultants Inc.

The Cokemaking and Ironmaking Technology Committees held a decarbonization brainstorming session at their joint meeting on 2 February 2023 (left to right): Megha Jampani, Hatch; IMTC chair Kyle Ferron, ArcelorMittal Dofasco G.P.; and IMTC vice chair Joe Morey, U. S. Steel – Gary Works.

The CMTC and IMTC met jointly Thursday, 2 February 2023, Coraopolis, Pa., USA
The Cokemaking and Ironmaking Technology Committees convened for a joint meeting before the Eastern States Blast Furnace and Coke Oven Association’s winter meeting in Pittsburgh, Pa., USA.
Both committees began with reviewing their session layouts for AISTech 2023, committee officer nominations for the 2023–2024 term and upcoming committee Roundups. The group then held a discussion around safety and the latest AIST Steel Industry Fatalities Report.
Jeff Mason gave a recap of the 2022 AIST Leadership Conference and David Marshall presented an update from the AIST Decarbonization Task Force. To cap off the meeting, the two committees held a brainstorming session on the decarbonization challenges of the North American iron and steel industry. The committees’ feedback will aid AIST’s ongoing development of a Decarbonization Roadmap for Iron and Steel Manufacturing funded through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology Roadmap Program.

The IMTC met 16 May 2022, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
The following officers were elected:

• Chair: Kyle Ferron  /  ArcelorMittal Dofasco G.P.

• Vice Chair: Joe Morey  /  U. S. Steel – Gary Works

• Papers Co-Chairs: Brian Black  /  Paul Wurth, and Jesse Carreau  /  Allied Mineral Products Inc.

• Roundup Chair: Stuart Street  /  Cleveland-Cliffs Dearborn Works

• Young Professional Chair: Chris Caplick  /  Cleveland-Cliffs Cleveland Works LLC

The IMTC and CMTC met jointly 3 February 2022, virtual meeting
The IMTC and CMTC held a joint virtual meeting via Zoom. The joint meeting was of interest as the technical portion of the meeting focused on decarbonization of their respective processes and their collaborative efforts in operations.
The meeting started out with a welcome from IMTC chair Nancy Armstrong, CMTC chair Jodi Kesik and IMTC vice chair Kyle Ferron. The committees then held discussions on AISTech session building, award planning and nominations for officers for next year.
The bulk of the meeting was a collaborative effort pulled together by David Marshall and Felix Firsbach on the topic of decarbonization. Marshall gave an overview on the efforts of the Decarbonization Subcommittee.

Presentations:

• “Merits of Coke Dry Quenching System,” by Shu Hiranuma, Nippon Steel Engineering.

• “Biomass Pyrolysis and Torrefaction,” by Randy Hagenbeek, TorrCoal.

• “Decarbonization,” by Wim Van der Stricht, Arcelor­Mittal Europe.

The group then moved on to a roundtable discussion. Kesik described the coke oven restoration project happening at Arcelor­Mittal Dofasco. Van der Stricht answered questions on biomass transition technology for use in the blast furnace. Hagenbeek discussed the regional challenges of pyrolysis and Hiranuma answered some questions on alternative technologies to dry quenching. Finally, the committees discussed safety protocols and impacts of COVID-19 in the mill environment.

The DRITC, EUTC, IMTC and OSTC met jointly 28–30 September 2021, Toledo, Ohio, USA.
The DRITC, EUTC, IMTC and OSTC met for a day of presentations, a networking reception and a tour of Cleveland-Cliffs IronUnits LLC, in addition to each committee’s respective business meeting. The committees wish to thank Joe Greco for his help in organizing and conducting the tour.
David Marshall kicked off a full day of decarbonization presentations on 29 September by describing the achievements already accomplished and future pathway, including the Strategic Plan of AIST’s decarbonization subcommittee for technology development and resources within AIST. Energy & Utilities Technology Committee chair Larry Fabina gave a detailed look at the work inside the Energy & Utilities Technology Committee and their decarbonization activity, as well as the focus the DRITC, IMTC and OSTC has put on the subject.
Presentations:

• “Getting Started Down the Decarbonization Path — Developing a Road Map, Timeline and Budget,” by David Mysko, Hatch.

• “The Spectrum Decarbonization Possibilities With Current Technology,” by Chris Pistorius, Carnegie Mellon University.

• “Decarbonization Strategies in Steel,” by Abhijit Sarkar, Dastur.

• “Decarbonization With Oxy-Fuel Combustion,” by Pravin Mathur, Linde.

• “Injecting Plastics Instead of PCI,” by Dale Heinz, International Recycling.

• “ArcelorMittal Efforts to Reduce Carbon Footprint,” by Keith Whitely, ArcelorMittal Dofasco G.P.

• “Green Primary Steelmaking and Green Electrical Steelmaking,” by Karim Alshurafa, SMS group Inc.

• “Iron-Air Batteries — The Catalyst for Steelmaking Decarbonization,” by Vincent Chevrier, Form Energy.

Direct Reduced Iron Technology Committee (DRITC)
Meeting Highlights:
The group had their business meeting on Tuesday, 28 September, led by Megha Jampani, Linde. They discussed their AISTech session development, safety, and the potential for DRI, hydrogen, or raw materials-based webinars.

Energy & Utilities Technology Committee (EUTC)
Meeting Highlights:
EUTC chair Larry Fabina covered a long list of energy-related topics and business items and then dedicated the remaining portion of the committee meeting to focus on the work by subcommittee members who are actively planning the Energy and Utilities — a Road Map to the Energy-
Efficient, Sustainable and Decarbonized Steel Industry conference, which will take place in March 2022.
Committee vice chair Anand Makwana is coordinating the selection process for the 2022 Energy Achievement Award.

Ironmaking Technology Committee (IMTC)
Meeting Highlights:
The IMTC meeting began with a safety discussion focused on the latest steel industry fatalities. The group had a hybrid meeting, allowing a number of people to attend that otherwise would not have been able to.
Felix Firsbach gave a detailed update with the current ironmaking paper selections for AISTech 2022. The group also requested volunteers for session chairs. The committee has also begun their award selection for this coming year.

Oxygen Steelmaking Technology Committee (OSTC)
Meeting Highlights: 
The OSTC held its business meeting on 30 September 2021. Discussed during the business meeting was industry safety practices, the OSTC sessions for AISTech 2022, the committee’s text for the AISTech Call for Papers, an update on the revision of Technical Report No. 32 and plans for future in-person OSTC meetings.

The IMTC met 29 June 2021, Nashville, TN USA.

The following officers were elected:

• Chair: Nancy Armstrong, Stelco Inc.

• Vice Chair: Kyle Ferron, ArcelorMittal Dofasco G.P.

• Papers Co-Chairs: Felix Firsbach, Lhoist Group, and Walter Hartig, IBFR Consulting and Expertise

• Membership Chair: Becky Hites, Steel-Insights LLC

• APB® Chair: Stuart Street, Cleveland-Cliffs 

• Dearborn Works

• Young Professional Chair: Megha Jampani, Linde

• Digital Transformation Liaison: Mitren Sukhram, 

• Hatch Ltd., and Nancy Armstrong, Stelco Inc.

The IMTC held a virtual meeting 5 February 2021
IMTC chair Mitren Sukhram welcomed the attendees. Papers chair Kyle Ferron reported that the committee’s AISTech 2021 technical session planning was on track and asked for additional session chair volunteers. Nominations for next year’s committee officers were solicited and the elections will take place at the IMTC meeting during AISTech in Nashville, Tenn., USA.
The IMTC then reviewed the 2021 AIST North American Blast Furnace Roundup, which was published in the March 2021 issue of Iron & Steel Technology. The committee thanked AIST Process Benchmarker^® chair Stuart Street for his dedication and work to pull the data together this year.
Nancy Armstrong reported that both the 2021 J.E. Johnson and 2021 Josef S. Kapitan Awards have been selected. Joe Poveromo reported that the Thomas L. Joseph Award has also been selected. All three awards will be presented at the IMTC meeting during AISTech 2021 in Nashville, Tenn., USA.
A lively discussion on the committee’s desire to sponsor one-hour webinars resulted in an ad hoc subcommittee being formed to plan future webinars.
Presentations: 

• “Raw Material Consistency and the Impact of Stiff Extrusion,” by Mac Steele, IMS International.

• “AISI Flame Temperature,” by John Busser, Hatch.

The IMTC held a virtual meeting 30 September 2020
In addition to its discussion on AISTech 2021 session development and rewording part of the Call for Papers language for AISTech 2022, the IMTC also discussed the status of their J.E. Johnson Award, which is now accepting nominations, as well as the Josef S. Kapitan Award and the Thomas L. Joseph Award.
Presentations:

• “Blast Furnace Flame Temperature and Energy Balance,” by John Busser, Hatch.

• “Optimizations of Blast Furnace Tuyere Injections,” by Frank Huang, ArcelorMittal Global R&D.

• “Blast Furnace Slag Analysis ASTM Standard E1031 – 96,” by Stuart Street, AK Steel Dearborn Works, and Tom Battle, consultant.

The IMTC held a virtual meeting 14 May 2020
The IMTC began their meeting with a discussion of their fall 2020 meeting plans. The committee agreed to postpone their upcoming joint meeting in September with the Oxygen Steelmaking Technology Committee to next year due to travel restrictions and being close to AISTech 2020.
The following committee officers for 2020–2021 were elected:

• Chair: Mitren Sukhram, Hatch.

• Vice chair: Nancy Ward, Stelco Inc.

• Papers co-chairs: Becky Hites, Steel-Insights LLC, and Kyle Ferron, ArcelorMittal Dofasco G.P.

• APB chair: Stuart Street, AK Steel – Dearborn Works.

• Membership chair: Eric Thokar, CISDI USA.

The committee then had a roundtable discussion focusing on how to restart a blast furnace after extended outages of one month or more. The primary discussion topic involved the number of tuyeres to be used during restart. Due to the numerous other topics of interest, it was suggested that a roundtable discussion be held at AISTech 2020.
The meeting wrapped up with a presentation by Kyle Ferron on ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s shutdown and restart practices.

The IMTC met 6 February 2020, Coraopolis, Pa., USA.
The IMTC reviewed the AIST Steel Industry Fatalities report and then began discussion of its AISTech 2020 sessions. There are 10 ironmaking sessions. The papers in these sessions were confirmed at the time of the meeting except for a few. The roles of session chair and papers chair were reviewed.
Nominations were taken for IMTC officers for 2020–2021.
The IMTC talked about Scrap Supplements and Alternative Ironmaking 8, which was held 2–4 March 2020 in Orlando, Fla., USA. A recap of the conference can be found on pages 194–195 of this issue.
The committee then discussed its 2020 awards, which will be presented at AISTech 2020.
The IMTC’s fall 2020 meeting will be a joint meeting held in October with the Oxygen Steelmaking Technology Committee. The meeting will feature a visit to U. S. Steel – Gary Works.

The IMTC met 11–12 September 2019, Dearborn, Mich., USA.
Nancy Armstrong led the discussion on the IMTC’s AISTech 2020 technical session development. At the time of the meeting, the IMTC had 69 papers. There was a noted increase in the amount of papers on sinter.
One topic of discussion related to papers was the criteria used to decide if a paper is too commercial. The attendees noted it’s hard to judge from the abstract itself. It was recommended that session chairs read the papers to review and check for excess commercialism.
A conference call will be scheduled for the beginning of November for discussion on session structure and session chairs. The instructions for both papers chair and session chair were reviewed.
The IMTC then updated its Call for Papers for AISTech 2021 to remove the language concerning DRI/alternative ironmaking technology.
Planning commenced for the IMTC’s 2020 awards — the Josef S. Kapitan Award, the J.E. Johnson Jr. Award and the Thomas L. Joseph Award.
Scrap Supplements & Alternative Ironmaking 8 will be held 2–4 March 2020 in Orlando, Fla., USA.
Nancy Armstrong then discussed AIST’s Young Professional programming and the initiatives to bring Young Professionals into the industry and keep them. A steering committee has been organized to take ideas from the Young Professionals’ Roundtable at AISTech and create opportunities for young people of any background.
Technology Committees have been asked to explore creating a Young Professional chair position. Megha Jampani from Praxair will serve in this capacity for the IMTC.
It was decided that a discussion on Young Professionals programming should be a standard item on the agenda at each meeting. Additional suggestions and comments from this discussion included:

• Reach out to professors at local universities.

• There are difficulties in getting senior leadership to hire people who aren’t necessarily from the top schools.

• Encourage people to apply for AIST scholarships.

• Enlist the Young Professionals group to invite past AIST scholarship recipients to events.

• Share the list of scholarships provided/interns that worked at facilities.

The IMTC reviewed the North American Blast Furnace Roundup. Stuart Street, Roundup chair, went over the data collection process for the coming year.
Additional discussion items included joint meetings with a number of different committees and the possibility of a study tour to India to interact with the Indian Ironmaking Technology Committee.
Technical presentations by producer members focused on casting technologies and casthouse practices. Arcelor­Mittal Cleveland, Stelco, AK Steel – Dearborn Works and ArcelorMittal Dofasco G.P. all presented information. The short presentations facilitated fruitful discussion from the group on casting procedures, tapholes, atypical observations and sampling, to name a few topics. In addition, Arthur Cheng gave a presentation on taphole clay.

Larry Storm (right) presented a plaque of appreciation to Stuart Street (left) for hosting the IMTC’s tour of AK Steel – Dearborn Works.

The IMTC met 6 May 2019, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
The following officers were elected:

Chair: Larry Storm, ArcelorMittal Cleveland

Vice chair: Mitren Sukhram, Hatch Ltd.

Papers co-chairs: Nancy Ward, Stelco Inc., and Becky Hites, Steel-Insights LLC

Membership chair: Kyle Ferron, ArcelorMittal Dofasco G.P.

APB^® chair: Stuart Street, AK Steel – Dearborn Works

The IMTC met 7 February 2019, Coraopolis, Pa., USA, co-located with the Eastern States Blast Furnace and Coke Oven Association conference.
The meeting began with a review of the Steel Industry Fatalities report and a safety roundtable discussion.
The IMTC finalized its AISTech 2019 technical sessions. There are 10 Ironmaking sessions and one joint session with the CMTC, for a total of 56 papers. All of the North American integrated plants are represented, with several from overseas as well. In addition, the responsibilities of the session chairs were reviewed.
Larry Storm discussed the nomination process for electing 2019–2020 IMTC officers.  
The IMTC reviewed its annual awards — the Josef S. Kapitan Award, the Thomas L. Joseph Award and the J.E. Johnson Jr. Award — and explained the purpose of each award. 
Stuart Street reviewed the 2019 AIST North American Blast Furnace Roundup.
Looking ahead, the IMTC began planning its Fall 2019 meeting, which will be held in Dearborn, Mich., USA. Tentative dates are 17–18 September. A tour of AK Steel – Dearborn Works will be offered.
The IMTC is considering an International Study Tour to draw in the global community. The group hasn’t held one since 2006.  
The Scrap Substitutes and Alternative Iron seminar will be held in Spring 2020 in Orlando, Fla., USA.

	Nancy Ward (left), process engineer, and John D’Alessio (right), process technology director — blast furnace and coke ovens, Stelco, were presented with a plaque of appreciation.

The IMTC met 25–26 September 2018, Hamilton, Ont., Canada.
Nancy Ward and Mitren Sukhram, IMTC papers co-chairs, discussed AISTech 2019 session development. At the time of the meeting, a total of 63 abstracts had been submitted, 50 of which had been accepted.
Volunteers for session chair were taken, and the instructions for papers chair and session chair were reviewed.
Barry Hyde, IMTC chair, discussed the IMTC awards and acknowledged those individuals on the award selection committees. The J.E. Johnson Jr. Award recognizes up and coming (under 40) individuals involved in the industry. The Josef S. Kapitan Award is awarded to the top paper for each session. The Thomas L. Joseph Award recognizes distinguished contributions in the fields of ironmaking and ore agglomeration technology.
The AIST Process Benchmarker^® was reviewed. Stuart Street is currently working on this task. Street also discussed the Rules of Thumb, and would like to present this at the next IMTC meeting.

The following individuals gave presentations:

• David Berdusco, Paul Wurth — BF Monitoring Equipment — “TMT (Tapping-Measuring-Technology).” The presentation focused on furnace top and shell measurement above burden temperature probes.

• Trevor Shellhammer, Shellhammer Consulting — “Tuyere Calorizing.” This presentation reviewed Burns Harbor blast furnace process development from 1999.

• Floris VanLaar and Jesse Carreau, Allied Mineral Technical Services — “Continuous Hearth Monitoring and Analysis.”

• David Chataway, Hatch — “Non-Destructing Testing (NDT) Technology.” This presentation covered stave measurement, refractory measurement, continuous monitoring and leak detection systems.

The following day, the group toured Stelco – Lake Erie Works.

Barry Hyde (left) presented Michael Riley (right) with the IMTC service plaque at AISTech 2018.

The IMTC met 7 May 2018, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
The following officers were elected:

• Chair: Barry Hyde, Hatch Associates Consultants Inc.

• Vice chair: Larry Storm, ArcelorMittal

• Papers co-chairs: Mitren Sukhram, Hatch, and Nancy Ward, Stelco

• Membership chair: Becky Hites, Steel-Insights LLC

• APB^® chair: Stuart Street, AK Steel – Dearborn Works

The IMTC met 1 February 2018, Coraopolis, Pa., USA, in conjunction with the Eastern States Blast Furnace and Coke Oven Association meeting.
Larry Storm discussed the IMTC’s AISTech technical sessions. The IMTC has 61 papers over 12 sessions.
If you are an author or session chair and have not logged in to the Hubb system, look for an invitation email from Hubb that will have a link for getting into the system. Check your spam folder. If you need additional assistance, please contact Lauren Dlugopolski at ldlugopolski@aist.org.
The IMTC discussed nominations for committee officers.
Discussion then focused on issues with getting producers involved in the committee and the importance of the membership chair for helping to keep producers involved.
The Blast Furnace Roundup was reviewed, which is published in the March issue of Iron & Steel Technology.
Stuart Street discussed the AIST Process Benchmarker^® and gave an update on the IMTC’s Rule of Thumb.
The committee discussed the importance of its November meeting and whether it is still needed, since its original purpose was to put together the paper sessions for AISTech. Today the deadline for assembling the session layouts is months before the November meeting and everything is completed by the papers chair before that meeting. The possibility was discussed of having a webinar for this meeting instead to go over the session layouts for the rest of the committee to see.
Scholarships from the AIST Foundation were brought up for discussion, and members were reminded to encourage students to apply at AIST.org.

The India Member Chapter and the IMTC met 5–6 December 2017, Jamshedpur, India. AS Reddy, Tata Steel Ironmaking Technology Group chief, hosted the group for the seventh meeting of the IMC-IMTC since its inauguration in 2014. 
RN Bhattacharyya, IMC-IMTC chair, opened the meeting and asked for introductions from the 19 attending members. Uttam Singh, Tata Steel vice president — ironmaking designate, and Ashok Kumar, Tata Steel chief technology officer — process, addressed the group and challenged them to provide a forum for blast furnace technology personnel to discuss key technologies, key concerns and key projects. The IMC-IMTC should be a place to share ideas and data for the improvement of the Indian blast furnace community. The IMC-IMTC seeks to meet on a quarterly basis in the future.
The meeting showcased a strong program of technical presentations:

• Paritosh Haldar, JSPL, presented data and operating experiences with the JSPL Angul 4,554 m³ blast furnace, which has been in operation since May 2017.

• A Srinivas Rao, JSW, presented JSW’s improved pulverized coal injection (PCI) usage on its blast furnaces and he brought forward to the group a challenge faced with the No. 3 and No. 4 blast furnaces, which have begun to tilt off-center. Much discussion ensued to provide informational assistance to Mr. Rao.

• Goutam Raut, Tata Steel Ironmaking Process Technology Group, presented on the PCI performance at the Tata Steel Jamshedpur blast furnaces. Tata Steel is seeking to improve the carbon injection rate through an extensive program focused on burden distribution, improved drainage during tapping, and by visualizing the internal state of the blast furnace to understand and make informed decisions.

• RN Bhattacharyya, RINL – Vizag Steel, discussed the blow-in procedure for Blast Furnace No. 2 at Vizag Steel and its achievement of full production after 20 days.

• Yogesh Sajjanwar, NMDC, provided an overview of the NMDC blast furnace which will be 4,500 m³ and is expected to be commissioned in September 2018.

• Sajal Bhattacharjee, Mecon Ltd., provided a perspective on lowering the production costs of Indian blast furnaces. The goal would be to enhance production without CAPEX but also to show improvements in greenhouse gas emissions, zero discharge and improving specific energy consumption. Improving PCI injection, hot blast temperature and oxygen injection are key components to improved production.

• AS Reddy presented on the Tata Steel Kalinganagar Granshot facility. The facility utilizes excess hot metal to produce shot-sized pellets of pig iron via a tundish pouring the molten iron into an engineered water spray system.

On 6 December 2017, the IMC-IMTC was given a tour of the Tata Steel ironmaking facilities. Included was the casthouse floor of I Blast Furnace, the facility’s newest blast furnace commissioned in 2012 which has a 3,814 m³ working volume, a 13-m-diameter hearth and is capable of producing 8,700 metric tons/day. The attendees also toured the No. 3 Sinter Line, which is capable of producing 350 metric tons of sinter per hour from iron ore fines and plant revert. The final stop was the No. 10 Coke Battery, which was built as part of the 2012 production expansion program at Tata Steel Jamshedpur.
Next IMC-IMTC Meeting: 5–6 April 2018, Hazira, India, hosted by Essar Steel. The committee is also considering a North American Blast Furnace Study Tour for September 2018, which would include a joint meeting with the AIST Ironmaking Technology Committee.

1. IMC-IMTC members on tour of Tata Steel I Blast Furnace. 2. Manish Agarwal, Tata Steel, showed the material feed chamber prior to the ignition furnace of the No. 3 Sinter Plant.

Mike Riley (left) presented a plaque of appreciation to Larry Storm (right) for hosting the IMTC’s tour of ArcelorMittal Cleveland.

The IMTC met 11–12 September 2017, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. The main agenda items of the meeting included an update on the “Rule of Thumb” project being developed by the IMTC. Some of its contents were reviewed, as well as discussion about the book format and social media page for group interaction.
The IMTC session development for AISTech 2018 was discussed. There are about 65 iron-producing abstracts that have been submitted and are undergoing review by the IMTC.
The status of the IMTC’s 2018 awards was also reviewed.
Process benchmarking (AIST Process Benchmarker™)
was discussed and it was agreed that the blast furnace participants would continue to input data.
Technical presentations were given on ArcelorMittal Cleveland’s blast furnace and on the impact of increasing O₂ injection at the blast furnace. 

	Stuart Street was presented with the IMTC service plaque.

The IMTC met 8 May 2017, Nashville, Tenn., USA.

The following officers were elected:

• Chair: Michael Riley, Praxair

• Vice chair: Barry Hyde, Hatch

• Papers co-chairs: Larry Storm, ArcelorMittal Cleveland, and Mitren Sukhram, Hatch

• Membership chair: Mike Morson, ArcelorMittal Dofasco Inc.

The IMTC met 2 February 2017, Coraopolis, Pa., USA. The IMTC’s winter meeting was held in conjunction with the Eastern States Blast Furnace and Coke Oven Association meeting.
The meeting’s main focus was finalization of the IMTC’s technical sessions for AISTech 2017. Since the group receives a large number of abstracts each year for their technical program, exploration into developing a two-day Ironmaking Symposium was discussed. A task group will develop a framework for the symposium.
Committee officers for 2017–2018 were discussed and elections will take place at the IMTC’s meeting at
AISTech 2017.
The IMTC’s fall meeting is tentatively set for late September or October and includes AK Steel Corp. – Middletown Works and ArcelorMittal Cleveland as potential locations.
The AIST Process Benchmarker (APB) was reviewed and the data compiled for this year’s blast furnace roundup was finalized.
Updates regarding the IMTC’s awards were discussed.
The meeting concluded with a discussion on the “rules of thumb” for blast furnace design and operation being compiled by the group.

The IMTC met 6 December 2016, Warrendale, Pa., USA. The IMTC reviewed its technical sessions for AISTech 2017, which include three concurrent sessions during each of the three days of the conference, totaling about 70 ironmaking presentations. The ironmaking program was arranged by session title, and session chairs were assigned.
The group was updated on the status of three of the awards presented by the IMTC — the J.E. Johnson Award, the T.L. Joseph Award and the Josef S. Kapitan Award. 
The North American Blast Furnace Roundup data was discussed, along with getting current data for the AIST Process Benchmarker® system. 
Several technical presentations were given, all related to various aspects of adding metallic to the blast furnace in various forms such as direct reduced iron, hot briquetted iron, etc., as well as the impact of various grades of this metallic charge on operation and production costs.

The IMTC met 7–8 September 2016, Hammond, Ind., USA. The business portion of the meeting was located on the Purdue University Northwest campus at the Steel Manufacturing Simulation and Visualization Consortium laboratory.
The IMTC discussed its technical sessions for AISTech 2017. The group reviewed 61 abstracts and discussed its Call for Papers topic for AISTech 2018.
The AIST Process Benchmarker^® and timing of data entry was discussed. Stuart Street encouraged producers to fill in their data in a timely fashion.
The IMTC is compiling a “Rules of Thumb” document for the design and proper operation of a blast furnace. More than 100 separate submissions have been compiled to date and the intent is to publish this compilation in a form of a book or technical report.
The IMTC elected Mitren Suhram as its membership chair. As a result, Barry Hyde moved up to vice chair and Larry Storm to papers chair.
The following technical presentations were given:

• “Opportunities for Increased Understanding of the Use Metallic in Blast Furnace Ironmaking Through Simulation and Visualization Modeling,” by Chenn Zhou, Purdue University Northwest.

• “Opportunities for BF Consumption of EAF, Integrated Metallic and Oxides,” by Steven Snell, Hickman, Williams & Co.

• “Technical and Economic Considerations for HBI in North American BFs,” by Mitren Suthrem, Hatch.

A general discussion followed the presentations.
Following lunch the group toured ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor iron-producing division No. 7 blast furnace.

Stuart Street (left), IMTC chair, presented James Bobek (right), ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor, with a plaque of appreciation for hosting the IMTC’s meeting on 7–8 September 2016 at Purdue University Northwest.

Stuart Street (left) presented the IMTC service plaque to Al Dzermejko (right).

The IMTC met 16 May 2016, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.