BHP Collaborates with Hatch to Build an Electric Smelter Furnace (ESF)

BHP Group Limited is a well-known Australian multinational mining company headquartered in the Melbourne city of Australia.

Drilling out fossil fuels contributes a major portion to rising pollution and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) levels.

Therefore, large mining corporations have partnered with technology companies and others to identify ways to lessen their carbon footprint and to assist in reduction of emissions produced by energy-intensive industries.

Similarly, on 23 March BHP Group signed an agreement with engineering and project management company Hatch to construct an electric smelting furnace pilot plant in Australia in an effort to zero its GHG emissions by 2050.

The facility will manufacture steel from iron ore received from the global miner’s Pilbara mines by utilizing renewable energy resources and hydrogen to replace coking coal. Resulting in reduced CO2 intensity produced during steel manufacturing.

According to Vandita Pant, BHP’s chief commercial officer, “the steel industry has identified Electric Smelter Furnace (ESF) as a workable option, and worldwide steel companies are stepping forward to build commercial-scale ESF plants while meeting CO2 emission-reduction targets.”

During October 2022, the mining giant BHP will collaborate with steelmaker ArcelorMittal and two other companies to test their new technologies aimed at lowering carbon emissions in steelmaking at two plants in Belgium and North America.