Toledo, OH: Oregon, OH: Cleveland-Cliffs HBI (Hot Briquette Iron)Plant

(Satellite, the plant is new enough that it doesn't show up yet on an Apr 2021 image)

Cleveland-Cliffs built this plant before they bought ArcelorMittal.

Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) burns hydrogen instead of coke. If the hydrogen is made using renewable electricity, then the iron smelting process is carbon free. (The byproduct of DRI is water instead of CO2). HBI is a carbon reduced solution that uses natural gas instead of coke. It is a significant step towards "green steel." HBI stands for hot briquetted iron. It can augment iron ore in blast furnaces to increase production or in electric arc furnaces to dilute the impurities in the scrap steel.  [voestalpine]

By Sep 2023, it does show up in Google Maps.

3D Satellite

Hallie Strohmeyer posted four photos with the comment: "Doing a little exploring around Toledo, OH today and bumped into this beauty! Cleveland-Cliffs HBI Plant"

Brian Olson: Not a new technology. My father was a chemist and he was involved with direct reduced iron starting in 1965 with the HYL process. That facility uses the Midrex process which is better.

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Cindy Ferg posted
The Cliffs.

Paul Hodson commented on Cindy's post
Here is a pic I took from a boat ride last summer.

James Torgeson posted
The tug-barge Clyde S. Van Enkevort-Erie Trader unloads DRI grade ore pellets at the Cleveland-Cliffs Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI) plant on the Maumee River.
Peter Hess: The plant uses natural gas rather than coke to reduce the pellets to high grade iron. The plant is capable to substitute hydrogen for natural gas. Innovation.

Anonymous participant posted 21 photos with the comment: "Cleveland Cliffs project 2019. Best job I ever been on." 

Steve Herrmann: Looks like the new HBI plant.

Robert Knappins: Steve Herrmann been running production for about 3 years now. I hear everyone loves it.

Steve Herrmann: Robert Knappins we use this HBI at Indiana harbor.

Brent Crain: Sweet pic I ran that crane for almost whole job.

[The comments establish that it was a union job.]

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This diagram indicates that the difference between natural gas and reducing gas is that the reducing gas has been heated in the absence of oxygen similar to how coke is made from coal.

midrex

Bubba Dubs posted five photos with the comment:

The 3rd stop on the great steel tour was Toledo and Cliffs HBI Plant

I’ve seen pictures of this facility over the years but they don’t do it justice….. wow

I don’t know the status of its production, but it looks like it was running at the time of my visit.

Wayne Dilcher: Yep.... it was definitely running when you took these pics

Cory Gilbert: I had the pleasure of constructing that back in 2019.

Forming the sponge iron into briquettes aid transportation. It not only allows the use of standard material handling equipment, it significantly reduces the chances that it will spontaneously combust in the hold of a ship. Briquetting also made the product suitable for blast furnaces as well as electric arc furnaces. The first HDI plant in the USA was built in Texas. [midrex] I presume the reason the Toledo plant is enclosed and the Texas plant is open is because of cold weather in Toledo. I wonder if the Texas plant had problems with stuff freezing during the bad cold spell in the Winter of 2021.

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