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The History of Mobarakeh Esfahan Steel Corporation:

 Mobarake Esfahan Steel Corporation, which is one of the largest industrial units of the Islamic Republic of Iran at present, is located in a space with 35 cubic kilometers area near Mobarake town and in 65 kilometer of southwest of Esfahan city. The executive operation of the complex was started in 1981, and was continued during the imposed war and under the air attacks of the enemy’s fighters by the powerful arms of honorable armies of industrial front. The performed structural and technical activities during constructing the complex are rare in Middle East. As an example, there are close to 18 million and 700 thousand cubic meters soil transporting, up to one million and 845 thousand cubic meters concreting, one million and 800 thousand cubic meters structuring, 80 thousand tons armature, around 150 thousand tons metallic structure, one million cubic meters covering installation and over 500 thousand tons machinery and equipments installed in it. The first electric arc furnace of steel making unit of the complex was operated in October of 1982, and the incumbent president opened the production lines of this great complex in January 13^th of 1983. The arrival of the corporation steel products into markets and gradual increasing of the production up to the nominal capacity of 2.4 million tons removed the significant part of the country’s need to this strategic object. The corporation proceeded to plan increasing the products in the form of developmental projects during the years after getting the nominal capacity by acquiring experience and economic power to response new requirements, increasing domestic and foreign trades and optimum using of the available produced equipments and machinery. It performed the first step of the development plans by using the financial resources resulted from local and foreign currency sell of the corporation and using financial, Rial and foreign currency credits, so that by implementing those plans, the corporation production is planned to achieve to minimum 11.5 million ton molten materials, and is being done as follows:

The development project is spending final steps under the cover of steel making, which are being implemented in two phases of 5.4 million ton and 7.2 million tons of molten and all projects related to 5.4 million tons molten. The required permissions and its necessary infrastructures for phase 7.2 million tons have been done. The development project of steel making and Saba successive roll which was joined to Mobarake Steel Complex in 2006 and has had the molten capacity of 700 thousand tons to 1.6 million tons, and also, the development project of Hormozgan Steel Complex, which was joined to Mubarake Steel Complex in March 2010 that will transmit the capacity of this complex from 1.5 to 3 million tons per year.

 

Considering steel industry is one of the essential industries of each country, and in fact, one of the criteria to industrialize a country is related to the development and progress of such an industry, particular concentration, improvement and development to it has a special significance. So, in this industry, such as many other ones, lots of research and investments was done to improve quality, produce special steels, reduce energy consuming and reduce the environment pollution. Considering steel industry is a part of high-energy consuming industries and energy carriers assign an important part of the steel total price to themselves, it’s completely necessary to provide guidelines to manage energy consuming, and reducing energy consuming in steel production is the major basis of steel plants projects and the main component of steel corporations goals of the world.

 

In competence with the materials such as plastics, aluminums, metal powders, composite and wood, and due to low cost and high productivity, steel is still predominant. Basic industries such as transportation, construction, machinery production, mining and other industries related to the production and transportation of energy depend on steel industry. Accordingly, global steel demand is high, and it will be constant if it won’t be increased in future.

 

The History of the Steel Industry of Iran:

The steel industry of the country was practically started in 1972 through the establishment of Esfahan Iron Steel Plant by Russians. In continuance of this industry development, Ahwaz Steel Unit in 1982 and after that Mubarake Steel Complex started to work. Then, Steel Roll Plants was established to turn the produced raw steel into the offerable products to markets.

 

Types of Processes:

The steel production process includes the main processes of ironing, steel making, casting, rolling, and the processes of the preparation and oxidizing of the raw materials contains agglomeration, pelletizing          and coking. The main ways of the steel production is generally divided into the two following methods in the world:

 

Integrated Mill (Ore-Base):

The primitive material in this method is iron ore (iron oxide). Iron oxide is oxidized by an activating material, and is turned into iron through ironing process. Then, in steel making process, iron is turned into steel by increasing carbon and other essential additives.

 

Mini Mill (Scrap – Base):

The raw materials in this method are steel and iron scraps, which are converted into steel after being melted in the electric arc furnaces, removing impurities, adding carbon and other essential materials.

 

The Integrated Mill method is divided into the following two technologies:

– The Convertor Blast furnace Technology

– The Direct Oxidizing Technology

 

– The Convertor Blast furnace Technology: In this method, Blast furnace is used to produce iron by coke activating material, which is resulted from coal, and Blast Oxygen Furnaces (BOF) is used to produce steel from iron. Beside main processes (iron making and steel making), there are some sidelong processes such as coking to produce the main material of agglomeration and oxidizing operations to prepare iron ore, which supply the required base of the main processes indeed. This technology is considered as the most important means of the crude steel in the world, and about 60% of the world crude steel is produced in this way. In the method, Blast Oxygen Furnaces are used to convert melted cast iron into steel. Such furnaces were replaced Open Hearth Furnaces (OHF) after the improvement of steel making technology. Esfahan Iron Steel Plant (Esfahan Steel Plant) in our country employs this method.

 

The Direct Oxidizing Technology: Electric arc furnaces technology is another production method to activate directly. In this method, natural gas (CH4) is the main element of iron ore. It’s remarkable in countries with rich resources of natural gas such as Iran. The rate of the production crude steel of the world from this method is about 7%. Direct oxidizing technology is divided into several main technologies, the most significant of which are: HYL IV, HYL III, MIDREX, Fluid Bed, and the most common of them is MIDREX. 26 units of MIDREX have been installed and operated in the world so far, and two units of which are placed in Steel Mubarake Complex and Steel Khuzestan Complex.