Steel plant engineering company Paul Wurth IHI (headquartered in Koto, Tokyo, abbreviated as PWIHI) has been utilizing their group’s capabilities to provide carbon solutions for the steel industry. PWIHI has been strengthening their cooperation with companies within the IHI group and also with major German steel plant engineering company SMS group, PWIHI’s joint venture partner, to expand their product lineup and the types of technological proposals they can make to customers. PWIHI will also utilize the 2 groups’ capabilities in terms of human resources in order to respond to the increase in the number of projects they are handling. By taking a ‘two-pronged approach’ of strengthening cooperation with IHI and SMS, PWIHI plans to support the realization of carbon neutrality (CN) in the steel industry.
IHI has been focusing their efforts on technologies that are gathering interest in relation to CN, such as ammonia, methanation and capturing CO2. IHI’s group companies, including IHI Rotating Machinery Engineering, which manufactures large compressors for steel plants, and also IHI Plant Services, IHI Packaged Boiler and IHI Power Systems have been handling the development of products that contribute to saving energy at production sites and also products related to ammonia.
The cross-organizational activities related to the above-mentioned carbon solutions are being coordinated by the General Sales Division of IHI’s Marketing & Sales Headquarters. PWIHI has also been cooperating with the General Sales Division to make integrated proposals to Japanese steelmakers. Varying needs are expected to emerge during the time when decarbonization technologies are actually implemented, and the company plans to pursue meeting those needs.
In addition, PWIHI has been pursuing cooperation with SMS, the parent company of joint venture partner Paul Wurth. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has a program aimed at promoting and supporting companies making investments in innovative energy-saving measures, and so far 7 products (including some developed by SMS) have been registered to the program. Among the registered products, the ‘SMS Injection System (SIS)’ is a facility which can shorten the amount of time that power needs to be turned on and reduces oxygen and power consumption, and it has been newly adopted by a domestic electric arc furnace steelmaker.
Furthermore, PWIHI will seek to create business opportunities in Japan with ‘X-Pact AURA’, which is a rectifier developed by SMS for use in DC electric arc furnaces which contributes to minimizing power quality loss. AURA has been adopted for use by Sweden’s H2 Green Steel and an electric arc furnace steelmaker in Thailand. Companies in Japan are beginning to make full-fledged efforts to install electric arc furnaces, and so PWIHI will present the aforementioned adoptions by overseas companies and also provide data to customers to pursue having AURA adopted for use in electric arc furnaces.
In addition to new projects related to CN, PWIHI has been handling ongoing projects related to iron-making plants, such as blast furnaces and coke ovens, which is a field in which the company has extensive expertise. For JFE Steel’s West Japan Works Fukuyama District, construction has begun to install Japan’s first stamp-charged coke oven batteries, and the facilities are scheduled to begin operations within 2025.
PWIHI already appears to be very busy with the number of ongoing projects they are currently handling. PWIHI is considering seeking cooperation from the IHI group’s overseas sites and the SMS group’s site in India to complement the shortages in human resources within their company in order to prepare for the expected increase in the number of orders they receive going forward.
