JSW Group, one of the major steel producers in India, has entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with Coolbrook, a transformational technology and engineering company headquartered in Finland, for deploying the latter’s RotoDynamic Heater (RDH) technology in its manufacturing sites at Vijayanagar Works in the State with the primary goal of achieving low-CO2 emissions in steel and cement production.
President of JSW Steel Vijayanagar and Salem Works P.K Murugan and Chief Executive Officer of Coolbrook Joonas Rauramo signed the agreement and exchanged the copies at a ceremony at JSW’s Toranagal plant in Ballari district on Thursday.
“The partnership between Coolbrook and JSW Group follows Coolbrook’s successful completion of the first phase of its large-scale pilot tests for RotoDynamic Technology on the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in the Netherlands in 2023. The tests demonstrated the technology’s heat generating capabilities, surpassing the temperature of 1000° C significantly above the range of conventional resistive heaters and proving the technology’s capability to reach temperatures up to 1700° C, essential for the highest temperatures required in steel production,” JSW and Coolbrook said in a joint press release.
As part of the agreement, it noted, both companies will collaboratively devise a roadmap aimed at achieving low carbon production, facilitating the phased rollout of RDH technology in JSW’s steel and cement manufacturing processes.
Mr. Murugan said that JSW Group has set an ambitious sustainability target of reducing its CO2 emissions aligning with the sustainable development scenario of the International Energy Agency and India’s Nationally Determined Contributions.
“Deployment of RDH technology is expected to have a sizeable impact on the decarbonisation of the group’s manufacturing process. We are happy to have Coolbrook onboard as a partner on our journey to reduce CO2 emissions and achieve our climate targets,” he said.
Mr. Rauramo said that Coolbrook’s pilot test results have already proven the capabilities of its technology and deployment of RotoDynamic Heater technology in JSW Steel’s production will demonstrate the impact of electrification with clean energy in steel manufacturing processes.
“Our patented electric technology enables significant decarbonization in steel production by reducing the need to burn fossil fuels. We are delighted to welcome JSW Steel to our partner network as a forerunner in the steel industry to start the implementation of Coolbrook’s revolutionary technology enabling a clean new industrial era,” he said.
As per information provided by the companies, RDH technology utilises renewable electricity to power high-temperature industrial processes significantly reducing the need to burn fossil fuels. In steel manufacturing, the technology targets the decarbonisation of manufacturing processes in the traditional way of production based on blast furnaces and the direct reduction of iron.
