[Report] 'Hydrogen Reduction and Secondary Batteries' POSCO's Future Business Progressing Smoothly

Visiting POSCO 3FINEX Plant and Gwangyang Yulchon Industrial Complex

ESF Electric Furnace First Operation in April
'Hyrex' Commercialization by 2030
Group's Secondary Battery Businesses Concentrated
Reducing Logistics Costs and Establishing Cooperation System

"Hydrogen reduction steelmaking technology will determine the future fate of the company."

On the 24th, at the POSCO steelworks FINEX plant in Pohang, Gyeongbuk, Jinchan Bae, Head of POSCO HyREX Promotion Team (Executive Director), explained POSCO's self-developed FINEX fluidized bed reduction furnace in the heat of the blast furnace spewing molten iron at 1500 degrees Celsius. The typical steelmaking process uses coal to remove oxygen attached to iron ore (Fe2O3) to produce pure iron, but the FINEX fluidized bed reduction furnace uses 25% hydrogen and 75% carbon monoxide as the iron ore reducing agents. It is a testing ground for carbon-free steel.

Molten steel is being tapped from the electric arc furnace test facility at POSCO ESF.
[Photo by POSCO]

The hydrogen reduction steelmaking technology that POSCO ultimately envisions is called ‘HyREX’. It uses the FINEX fluidized bed reduction furnace and the ESF electric smelting furnace together. Iron ore is sequentially reacted with hydrogen in four fluidized bed reduction furnaces to produce direct reduced iron (DRI), which is then melted in the ESF (Electric Smelting Furnace) to produce products.

The ESF electric furnace was completed earlier this year and produced molten iron for the first time in April, completing its first tapping. It is scheduled to undergo pilot operation every three months going forward. POSCO views the ESF electric furnace as the core of HyREX and plans to commercialize HyREX technology by 2030. The plan is to use this bridging technology before low-carbon technology is commercialized and gradually convert facilities to HyREX by 2050, when carbon neutrality is declared.

Lithium ore raw material (spodumene) is stacked in the raw material warehouse of POSCO Philbar Lithium Solution.
[Photo by POSCO]

The secondary battery materials business, which aims to complete the full value chain from raw materials to materials and enhance competitiveness, is also progressing smoothly. On the 25th, the Yulchon Industrial Complex in Gwangyang, Jeonnam, resembled the ‘mecca’ of secondary batteries. POSCO Group’s secondary battery materials business units were clustered close enough to walk between them within the industrial complex.

By reducing the physical distance between POSCO Future M’s cathode material plant, POSCO Philbar Lithium Solution’s lithium hydroxide plant, and POSCO HY Clean Metal’s waste secondary battery recycling plant, they reduced logistics costs such as raw materials and established a close cooperative system. On-site that day, expansion of factories including POSCO Philbar Lithium Solution’s second plant was underway. POSCO Group plans to take advantage of the electric vehicle market chasm (a temporary market downturn) and the decline in mineral prices by purchasing high-quality assets such as lithium salt lakes and mines at low prices to diversify raw material supply chains.

Chairman Inhwa Jang emphasized during the ‘100-day field accompaniment’ started upon his inauguration, "The completion of the full value chain of secondary battery materials from raw materials to materials will be POSCO Group’s differentiated competitiveness in the global market competition."