The Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) has awarded a $750,000 grant to help a Newcastle-based mining consumable producer and steel manufacturer implement UNSW’s Green Steel technology.
Molycop aims to use the technology, also known as Polymer Injection Technology (PIT), to recover and reuse carbon and hydrogen from end-of-life rubber products in the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) steelmaking process.
Industrial rubber boot manufacturer, Crawford Boots, will also partner with Molycop and UNSW to further enhance the recycling capability of this innovative technology.
Molycop aims to reduce its reliance on imported carbonaceous materials from China, reduce the volume of wastes going to landfill, improve the energy efficiency of the steelmaking process and reduce the carbon intensity of its products.
The total investment into the project is $2.6million which includes the AMGC grant, Molycop’s capital investment and the funding of ongoing R&D activities and trials to further increase this technology’s resource recovery and recycling capability.
Director of the UNSW Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) Centre, and inventor of the technology, Professor Veena Sahajwalla, congratulated Molycop for its commitment to both implementing and further developing SMaRT@UNSW Green Steel technology as part of its sustainability leadership.
“The AMGC grant will enable Molycop to work towards fully operationalising our existing technology in its Newcastle facility,” Sahajwalla said.
“And what’s also exciting is that we are collaborating in developing our Green Steel 2.0 technologies, which we are confident will at some point in the future allow us to be able to fully replace coking coal in EAF steel making with a range of waste materials.
“Being able to release carbon and hydrogen from waste as a resource improves overall efficiency, and helps us move towards decarbonisation because hydrogen is present in waste.”
Molycop is also licensed to commercialise the technology internationally and is currently in discussions with international steelmaking companies.