Sun becomes Power,
Power becomes Hydrogen,
Hydrogen becomes Steel.
Time for new Routes.
Sun becomes Power,
Our Route
Steelmaking
3,500,000,000 kWh is what we call a Start.
How our ambition to achieve zero emission leads to enormous numbers.
The Solar Power Plant
The land area intended for the solar power plant is located in the Erongo region and is fully owned by the Tom Ortmanns Investments PTY Ltd, which also serves as the power plant operator. The area has a size of approx. 1,000 ha (10 km²) and, when fully utilised, represents one of the largest solar power plants in the world, generating an annual electrical output of up to 3.5 terawatt hours – this corresponds to the annual consumption of approx. two million European households.
A further essential aspect of the area is that, in contrast to numerous other regions with high energy demand, they do not compete with other uses: The soil is barely fertile so it does not raise opposing economical or social interests.
Still, in order to keep interference with nature as low as possible, the photovoltaic modules are designed as a lifted construction so that use for wild animals and possibly even agricultural utilisation of the land stays possible.
The Hydrogen
In addition to the collection of solar energy, the production of hydrogen is the key essence of our energy concept. The solar power generated on site can be used for production of 55,000 tons of green hydrogen per year. This is largely intended for iron reduction and thus the production of green steel; in parallel, secondary applications are planned, such as the fuel supply of transport logistics (trucks, ships) and eco-efficient small applications.
The Iron Ore Mine
The iron ore required for steelmaking is extracted directly on site: Much like the solar field, the mine is located in central Namibia, about 250 km from the planned steel mill. This eliminates the usual ore and coal transports, e.g. from Australia, Brazil or Canada, as well as the costly sintering processes of the traditional blast furnace route. The mining volume of the iron ore mine is potentially more than 7 million tons of iron ore per year.
The mineral resource iron ore in raw form:
The rocks are broken up on site to seperate the iron from the mineral.
The mine is operated as an open-cast mine and, in addition to the power plant and steel mill, is another regional employer, which means that NAMSTEEL offers a wide range of requirements and qualifications for employees. Already in the first step – being the extraction of raw materials, low-invasive processes are used to minimize the ecological footprint: The iron ore is mined in open-cast mining and broken in an environmentally friendly dry process, ground into fine grain, magnetically separated from waste and finally fed into the reactor. Overburden and secondary rocks remain on site and are recycled into bulk material.
However the chimney design looks like in the end:
Everything coming out of there is nothing but pure water.
The Steel Mill
Industrial land of more than 200 ha is available in the municipality of Omaruru, Erongo, for both the steel mill and downstream value-added processes. Approximately 20 ha are accounted for by the steel mill itself, within which direct reduction plants with a processing capacity of 1,000,000 tons of iron per year are planned as the centerpiece. These plants produce DRI (directly reduced iron) from the iron ore via oxygen reduction, which is further processed in different ways (see 3.5).
Compared to the traditional blast furnace route, where about two tons of coke are needed to produce one ton of steel, the CO2-emissions are hereby completely reduced to zero, thanks to the energy supply from solar power and the iron reduction with green hydrogen.
The Processing
DRI is pure iron and an intermediate product, which is hardly transportable due to its reactivity. In the steel mill and connected plants, DRI is therefore further processed into different products and the proportions can be varied as desired depending on the requirements of the market:
- HBI – hot briquetted iron, DRI in briquette form with the addition of approx. 2% carbon
- Continuous casting – continuous products such as slabs or billets
- Rolled Products – further processed wide, flat or long products made of steel
The resulting products are then loaded in bulk or stacks and transported proportionately for sale on the domestic market or to the country’s largest port, the deep-sea port in Walvis Bay.
The Transport
In addition to a purely hydrogen-powered fleet of trucks, rail transport serves as a means of moving goods: With the HyRail Project scheduled for 2025, Namibia will have one of the first hydrogen power trains in Africa. This freight train concept was already designed before the start of our own planning and will conveniently be connected directly to the port in Walvis Bay.
To the right: The distances within the entire value chain are short, almost everything is moved via rail.
To the Left: Areas for the steel mill in the municipality of Omaruru. The rail connection is already in place.
