Pig iron mill
Located in the municipality of Cuchi, the Steel mill is about 66 km from the Cutato mine and 620 km from the Sacomar Terminal Port, through which it is exported.
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Currently equipped with a blast furnace with a production capacity of 96,000 tonnes per year, CSC produces basic pig iron using charcoal in the production process. The project to be implemented will include the construction of three more blast furnaces by 2025, expanding its annual production capacity to 520,000 tons and the installation of a thermoelectric plant to generate up to 15 MW of clean energy, using the gases generated in the pig iron production process; CSC will consume part of the energy generated, and the remains will be connected at the public network, benefiting the nearby populations.
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Brazil is one of the few countries to produce pig iron from renewable biomass energy using charcoal, and Angola became the newest one with the investment made by CSC.
What is Pig Irong?
Pig iron is a steelmaking input produced in the blast furnace from the reaction between iron ore and coal (mineral or vegetable). Coal performs two functions: the first as fuel to generate the heat needed to operate the blast furnace; the second as a chemical agent to remove oxygen during the process resulting from Fe2O3 reduction reactions. The chemical composition of pig iron is at least 92% iron and 3.5% to 4.5% carbon.
There are three types of merchant pig iron: BASIC PIG IRON, used mainly in electric arc steelmaking; FOUNDRY PIG IRON, primarily used in the manufacture of grey iron castings in cupola furnaces; and NODULAR PIG IRON (SG GRADE), used in the manufacture of ductile iron castings.
Carbon-free
While most of the world's pig iron and steel production uses coal and coke as energy sources and iron ore reducing agents, the use of charcoal in the CSC production process guarantees carbon-free production.
In carbon-free production, all the carbon generated by combustible processes is neutralized through the carbon absorbed by the renewable forest, in the case of CSC, by using charcoal.
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Charcoal makes the pig iron production process more responsible and sustainable since it substitutes fossil-based raw materials (considered highly polluting) and contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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Additionally, because it comes from well-managed forests, charcoal increases the national capacity to capture and store carbon (CO2). Compared to the production of pig iron using coke, studies show that for each ton of pig iron produced with charcoal, 3 tons of CO2 are captured.
The "carbon-free" concept has been strengthened with the adoption of the Paris Agreement.
Approved in 2015 and signed by 195 countries, the Paris Agreement set the goal of limiting global warming to less than 2°C and adding efforts to restrict warming by 1.5°C. Heads of state agreed to reduce emissions and seek a neutral balance between emissions and removals in the second half of the century, defined as carbon neutrality.