AVB Açailândia steel plant

From Global Energy Monitor

AVB Açailândia steel plant (Usina siderúrgica AVB Açailândia (Portuguese)), also known as Aço Verde do Brasil steel plant, is a 600 thousand tonnes per annum (TTPA) blast furnace (BF) and basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steel plant operating in Açailândia, Maranhão, Brazil.

Location

The map below shows the location of the steel plant in Açailândia, Maranhão, Brazil.

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  • Location: Rod BR 222, Km 14,5 nº 69 - Distrito de Pequiá 65930-000 - Açailândia - MA, Brazil[1]
  • Coordinates (WGS 84): -4.874373,-47.4073517 (exact)

Background

The AVB Açailândia steel plant is owned by Aço Verdes do Brasil, the steel-making division of Brazil's Grupo Ferroeste.[2]

In 1989 Grupo Ferroeste founded the Gusa Nordeste iron plant in Açailândia, along the Carajás railroad in the state of Maranhão in northeastern Brazil. Pig iron production began at Gusa Nordeste in 1993, growing from 60,000 to 360,000 tonnes annually over the next decade.[3]

In 2008, with support from the Banco do Nordeste, Grupo Ferroeste launched plans to expand its Açailândia operation to include steelmaking.[3] The new plant, known as AVB (Aços Verde do Brasil, or Green Steel of Brazil) began producing liquid steel in December 2015[3][4], and added a facility for the production of wire rod and other laminated products in 2018.[3] The plant's initial production capacity of 420,000 tpa[4] has been increased to 600,000 tpa[5][6], with the addition of two new blast furnaces in 2018[5] and 2021[7].

Grupo Ferroeste has touted AVB as the world's first "green" operation, due to the fact that the plant's blast furnaces burn charcoal from the company's nearly 50,000 hectares of eucalyptus forests as a substitute for coking coal.[3][6] In March 2021 the Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS) certified AVB's steelmaking operations as carbon-neutral, noting that the plant released less than 0.10 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel produced, significantly less than the world average of 1.81 to 1.83 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel[6] or the range of 1.56 to 3.38 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel recorded by the World Steel Association at integrated steel plants worldwide.[8] Other initiatives undertaken by AVB to minimize fossil fuel consumption include the use of hydroelectric power, reuse of BOF and BF process gases, reuse of BF slag for cement production, and reuse of BOF slag to fuel its blast furnaces and basic oxygen furnace.[6][8]

Low-emissions/green steelmaking

This steel plant is associated with a green steel project tracked in the Green Steel Tracker. Details about the project are included below.

  • Company: Aço Verde do Brazil (AVB)
  • Stated company climate target for 2030: N/A
  • Stated company climate target for 2050: N/A
  • Project name: N/A
  • Project website: https://avb.com.br/
  • Location: Brazil
  • Coordinates: -4.874191266, -47.40414913 (exact)
  • Project scale: full scale
  • Technology category: Other
    • Specific technology: Bio-charcoal BF
    • Hydrogen type: N/A
  • Year online: 2018
  • Size (m USD): Not stated
  • Steel production capacity (Mtpa): 0.6
  • Iron production capacity (Mtpa): N/A
  • Hydrogen capacity generation (MW): N/A
  • Carbon capture capacity (Mtpa CO2): N/A
  • Partners: N/A
  • Date of announcement: 03/25/2021


All references for the above data are available in the Green Steel Tracker.


Plant Details

Table 1: General Plant Details

Plant status Start date Workforce size Power source
operating[9] 2015[10][11][12] 2300[9] onsite power plant fueled by blast furnace (BF) gases[13]

Table 2: Ownership and Parent Company Information

Parent company Parent company PermID Owner Owner company PermID
Ferroeste Industrial Ltda [100%][14] 4298439227 [100%] Aco Verde do Brasil SA[14] 4298258196

Table 3: Process and Products

Steel product category Steel products Steel sector end users Main production equipment Detailed production equipment
semi-finished; finished rolled[15] billets, rebar, wire rod[9] automotive; building and infrastructure; energy; tools and machinery[16] blast furnace (BF) and basic oxygen furnace (BOF)[17][18] 1 BOF (50-tonne)[19][17][9][20]

Table 4: Crude Steel Production Capacities (thousand tonnes per annum):

Basic oxygen furnace steelmaking capacity Nominal crude steel capacity (total)
600 TTPA[21][18] 600 TTPA[22][17]

Table 5: Crude Iron Production Capacities (thousand tonnes per annum):

Blast furnace capacity Nominal iron capacity (total)
720 TTPA[21] 720 TTPA

Table 6: Actual Crude Steel Production by Year (thousand tonnes per annum):

Year BOF Production EAF Production OHF Production Total (all routes)
2020 321 TTPA[20][22] 321 TTPA[20][22]
2021 345 TTPA[18] 345 TTPA[18]

Table 7: Actual Crude Iron Production by Year (thousand tonnes per annum):

Year BF Production DRI Production Total (all routes)
2020 298 TTPA[23][1] 298 TTPA[23][1]
2021 326 TTPA[24] 326 TTPA[24]


Blast Furnace Details

Table 8: Blast Furnace Details:

Unit name Status Start date Current size Current capacity
1; "Roberta" operating[19][17][9][20] May 2018[19][17][9][20] 352 m³[17] 360 TTPA[21][25]
2; "Regina" operating[19][17][9][20] May 2021[19][17][9][20] 352 m³[26] 360 TTPA[21]

Articles and Resources

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20220120203349/https://acobrasil.org.br/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Anuario_Completo_2021.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-01-20. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. "Grupo Ferroeste – Siderurgia, Combustíveis e Energia |". Grupo Ferroeste. Retrieved 2022-01-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "Institucional". Grupo Ferroeste. Retrieved 2022-02-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Gusa Nordeste commissions the world's first Green Steel Plant". Russula. 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. 5.0 5.1 "Relatório de Sustentabilidade 2019-2020 (p 2, p 28)" (PDF). AVB (Aço Verde do Brasil). May 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Carvalho, Adriana (2021-03-25). "Brazil's AVB receives carbon-neutral steel certificate". www.spglobal.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. "A AVB está de alto-forno novo! O alto-forno Regina, aumentará ainda mais a capacidade produtiva de nossa empresa". AVB (Aço Verde do Brasil). May 20, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. 8.0 8.1 "Aço Verde do Brasil (AVB) se torna a primeira usina siderúrgica carbono neutro do mundo" (PDF). Valor. February 2, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 https://web.archive.org/web/20220319030542/https://avb.com.br/a-avb/. Archived from the original on 2022-03-19. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. https://web.archive.org/web/20220321094722/https://grupoferroeste.com.br/institutional/?lang=en. Archived from the original on 2022-03-21. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. https://web.archive.org/web/20211020040024/https://avb.com.br/primeira-usina-siderurgica-carbono-neutro-do-mundo-2/. Archived from the original on 2021-10-20. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. https://www.russula.com/project/gusa-nordeste-commissions-the-worlds-first-green-steel-plant. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20220319193049/https://avb.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/PDF-02.02-1.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-03-19. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. 14.0 14.1 https://web.archive.org/web/20220320122655/https://grupoferroeste.com.br/. Archived from the original on 2022-03-20. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. https://web.archive.org/web/20220319030542/https://avb.com.br/a-avb/. Archived from the original on 2022-03-19. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. https://web.archive.org/web/20220319212235/https://avb.com.br/produtos/. Archived from the original on 2022-03-19. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 17.6 17.7 (PDF) https://avb.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/RELAT%C3%93RIO-DE-SUSTENTABILIDADE-Rev.-Final.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20220625100836/https://acobrasil.org.br/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AcoBrasil_Mini_anuario_2022.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-06-25. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 https://web.archive.org/web/20220319095230/https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=308855627363006. Archived from the original on 2022-03-19. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20220120225956/https://acobrasil.org.br/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Mini_anuario_2021_AcoBrasil-1.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-01-20. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  21. 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 https://ri.avb.com.br/Download.aspx?Arquivo=BiH5Qa0K8sgV43KY/hyE0g==. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  22. 22.0 22.1 22.2 (PDF) https://grupoferroeste.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/RELAT%C3%93RIO-DE-SUSTENTABILIDADE-2020-2021_update.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  23. 23.0 23.1 (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20211023214550/https://grupoferroeste.com.br/rel-sustentabilidade-avb21.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-10-23. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  24. 24.0 24.1 (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20220722190457/https://acobrasil.org.br/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/AcoBrasil_Anuario_2022.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-07-22. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  25. https://ri.avb.com.br/show.aspx?idCanal=hMR9EBCZPAxnwUA+dVMAeQ==. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  26. (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20211020041633/https://avb.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/RELATORIO-DE-SUSTENTABILIDADE-FINAL.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-10-20. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

Other resources



Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of steel power plants, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Steel Plant Tracker and Global Blast Furnace Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.