BISMARCK: Bismarck-based Carbontec Energy Corp. is hitting pause on a Jamestown iron plant to pursue a new venture in northern Indiana. The recent downturn in the iron and steel industry has provided Carbontec with a new business opportunity, Chairman John Simmons told The Bismarck Tribune (http://bit.ly/2bcJ1K8 ).
As steel companies have become interested in cost-saving measures, Carbontec is working with a large, international steel company to convert iron bearing steel mill waste products into iron nuggets. Carbontec plans to commercialize the technology, constructing a 100,000 metric ton-per-year plant near the steel mills in northern Indiana.
Currently, that waste is stockpiled, buried on site or hauled to commercial waste dumps at a cost of $20 per metric ton, Simmons said. A recently completed test program of Carbontec’s E-Iron Process successfully converted the waste products into pig iron-grade iron nuggets with 95 percent iron and 3 percent carbon. The nuggets, worth $300 per metric ton, are high-value feedstock for electric steel-making furnaces and iron foundries.
It will cost about $180 per metric ton, including financing, to produce a $300-per-metric ton product, which would lead to earnings of 55 percent before interest, taxes and scheduled debt payments. The U.S. imports about 4 million metric tons of pig iron, largely from Brazil, Russia and Ukraine. The pig iron produced at a Carbontec plant would replace a portion of these pig iron imports while providing additional jobs, Simmons said.
Carbontec is looking for funding sources for the Indiana plant’s construction as well as operating costs. The plant will cost $70 million to build plus working capital and will take 14 months to construct, Simmons said. Construction will start when financing is in place.
The plant will employ 40 people initially and will be designed for a future expansion to 300,000 metric tons per year, at which point it would provide 100 jobs. Job skill requirements would be similar to those of a coal-fired power plant, Simmons said
The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced a $300,000 grant to Purdue University Northwest, The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Carbontec, to utilize LLNL’s super computers and Purdue’s modeling expertise to optimize the design of the E-Iron Process furnace, which is expected to lower the cost of plant construction and improve energy efficiency.
