Ironmaking Committee Activities

The EUTC and IMTC jointly 26–27 September 2024, Hamilton, Ont., Canada.

The joint meeting opened with remarks by IMTC chair Brian Black and EUTC vice chair John Hill, who co-organized the meeting of these two committees to discuss the existing decarbonization efforts for both the blast furnace and electric arc furnace steelmaking routes. Valuable discussion and input came from the many Canadian producers present. Committee business included an early look at the AISTech 2025 session developments led by papers chairs Russ Chapman and Jesse Carreau, who mentioned the large number of decarbonization-
 related abstracts. 

The EUTC committee voted to accept Roman Camacho as its new Young Professional chair. The IMTC then developed the grading teams to judge submissions for their three 2025 committee awards: the Josef S. Kapitan Award, the Thomas L. Joseph Award and the   J.E Johnson Award. 

The following day the group visited Stelco’s Lake Erie Works. Stelco’s Debasish Kakoty explained the mill’s safety program and showed an overview of the facilities that supported the blast furnace tour. 

The committee held a technical session on  energy and fuel planning management for the primary end.

Presentations:

• “Decarbonization Look Forward at Stelco — A High-Level Overview,” by Chad Cathcart, Stelco.
• “Carbon Capture Past, Present and Future With Gas Cleaning,” by Mark Puett, Elessent Clean Technologies.
• “Decarbonization Pathway [IMTC] Initiative Update,” by Brian Black, SMS group Inc., and Joe Morey, Morey Industrial Consulting LLC.
• “Large-Scale Hydrogen Production and Distribution,” by Anup Sane, Air Products.

The meeting concluded with a panel discussion moderated by David Marshall on energy use, reuse and efficiency featuring Abdul Hassan, ArcelorMittal; John Hill, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.; and Paul Towsey, Hatch.

The EUTC and IMTC toured Stelco’s blast furnace facilities as part of their 26–27 September 2024 joint meeting in Hamilton, Ont., Canada.

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.

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.

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 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 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.