Feralpi of Italy Launches Industrial Trial of Conductive Billet Heating

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 29, Italian steelmaker Feralpi Group announced the start-up of an industrial pilot installation for conductive billet heating at its Lonato del Garda plant in the province of Brescia. The installation uses direct Joule-effect heating technology, employing renewable electricity to replace natural gas in the final heating stage before billet rolling, and is an industrial-scale demonstration facility under the EU Modiplant research project. Feralpi stated that this is the first industrial-scale validation of the technology in Europe's construction steel production sector.

The pilot installation operates in conjunction with the existing natural gas-fired reheating furnace in a hybrid heating process. Before entering the rolling mill, billets are rapidly and controllably heated by Joule heat generated from electric current. The installation uses renewable electricity, achieving natural gas substitution in the final heating stage of the billet production process covered by the trial, which no longer generates direct emissions from natural gas combustion.

The installation is one of the core pilot facilities of the EU Modiplant project. The project's full name is "Modular Hybrid Technology for Steel Production," with grant agreement number 101099118, funded by the European Union's Research Fund for Coal and Steel. The project had previously completed billet heating process simulation, installation design, equipment supplier selection, and component manufacturing, and has now entered the industrial on-site operational validation phase.

Feralpi will use the industrial trial to obtain actual operating data on conductive billet heating, focusing on evaluating heating efficiency, temperature uniformity, metal yield, and iron oxide scale formation. The research team will also analyze the synergistic operation of conductive heating with the existing natural gas heating process under industrial operating conditions, and assess the technical adjustments required for scaling up the application.

Feralpi is also studying the feasibility of extending the hybrid heating technology to the entire rolling production process. Full-scale application would require redesigning the existing billet heating process and making further environmental technology investments. Subsequent expanded deployment will be determined based on industrial trial data, equipment operating requirements, and project economic feasibility assessments.