SMS Group and Saarstahl, part of SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar, are working together to achieve CO2 neutrality with a modern, high-performance electric steel plant.
SMS Group has received an order to supply one of the world’s most powerful AC electric arc furnaces (AC-EAF) and its ancillary equipment to Saarstahl in Völklingen. This will contribute to SHS’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2045. Jochen Burg, CEO of SMS Group (2nd from right): “We are proud to play a key role in Europe’s green steel transformation with this major project for Saarstahl and SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar. The project underlines the long-standing partnership between SHS and SMS group. With a connected load of 300 MVA, the new EAF is the largest electric arc furnace ever built by SMS Group and will set a new milestone on the way to a CO2-neutral future for the European steel industry.” The new 185-tonne electric arc furnace will be built in an already defined brownfield area. With a transformer capacity of 300 MVA, it is one of the most powerful electric arc furnaces in the world. It will also process a flexible mix of 100 percent scrap or 80 percent CDRI (cold sponge iron)/HBI (sponge iron briquettes) and 20 percent scrap.
As the largest EAF ever built by SMS Group with a vessel diameter of 9.3 meters, it will have an annual capacity of 1.9 million tons of liquid steel. This investment reinforces SHS’s strategic plan to use a mixture of 70 to 85 percent natural gas and 30 to 15 percent hydrogen as an energy source by 2030, thus significantly reducing CO2 emissions. With Phase I starting in October 2024 and the first melt expected in September 2028, the plant will produce various types of steel, including bearing steel, free-cutting steel and spring steel.
The EAF will be equipped with Condoor, SMS’ improved slag door, which offers significant benefits in terms of safety, productivity, energy savings and environmental impact. Condoor enables automatic operation, reduces non-productive time, provides a clean slag door sill, saves energy and reduces NOx emissions with a sealed vessel. It also optimizes slag residence time, improves flux and raw material usage while reducing electrode, carbon and lime consumption, lowering the carbon footprint. The scope of supply also includes materials management with bunkers specifically designed for certain production grades, liquid steel management, repair area for FF delivery, water treatment plant, compressed air piping, two flue gas treatment plants, energy recovery and electrical/automation systems, sound insulation, trolleys with hybrid technology for scrap bucket movements, auxiliary cranes and hall and field piping. The EAF will be equipped with SMS Group’s advanced X-Pact automation, including X-Pact Sense for leak detection and X-Pact Autotap for safe and automated tapping. For predictive maintenance, Genius CM will be implemented to increase operational efficiency and safety. Other innovations include SafEBT-clean for automatic cleaning of the eccentric bottom tapping (EBT) channel to ensure maximum spontaneous EBT openings, and SafEBT-fill for automatic sand filling, temperature measurement and probe change.
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