Research & Development

Producing Ferro Chrome with Less Energy

The Group’s R&D centre at Jamshedpur has developed a novel process technology than can be applied either for the direct production of stainless steel or for producing ferro chrome in submerged arc furnaces (SAF) with reduced specific power and coke consumption. In 2008, scale-up trials were carried out to establish the technical and economical feasibility of the process. The research team also worked closely with the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT), Bhubaneswar on a fluidised bed reactor process.

Two variants of this process are being developed for the production of pre-reduced chrome for use in production of ferro chrome in the existing SAF process and chrome nuggets that are used as alloying addition in stainless and alloy steel making. The novel process uses non-coking coal as a reducing agent and energy source. Thus there is reduced need for low ash, low phosphorus (imported) coke.