Principles:

McWong Environmental and Energy group is pleased to be a partner with Sierra Energy Inc. Through this collaboration, we are retrofitting existing blast furnace steel mill operations by installing precision steam and oxygen blast nozzles, which increases the overall production capacity and top gas value, as well as raw material consumption and emissions efficiency.

This technology incorporates several proprietary changes to conventional and coal injection blast furnaces, and can easily retrofit an existing blast furnace. These changes are minimal and cost effective, yet allow iron producers to dramatically improve costs per ton of hot metal and their overall daily production capacity.

Key Benefits:

1. ≥ 40% increase in hot metal production capacity
2. ≥ 50% reduction in metallurgical coke consumption
3. Top gas calorific value of 8-10 MJ/m3
4. Reduced greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact
5. Increased flexibility in using alternate carbonaceous materials
6. Flexibility in shifting production toward more gas production to save on mill natural gas costs

Resulting value to integrated mills:

• Optimizes production capacity based on demand for iron
• Reduces natural gas dependency and cost
• Avoids compliance costs associated with environmental regulation
• Delays or avoids coke oven building/rebuilding