JSW Group, a diversified business conglomerate, has entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with Coolbrook, an engineering company headquartered in Finland. This strategic partnership will focus on implementing Coolbrook’s RotoDynamic Heater technology at JSW’s manufacturing sites at Vijayanagar Works in Karnataka with the primary goal of achieving low-CO2 emissions in steel and cement production.
The partnership between Coolbrook and JSW Group follows Coolbrook’s successful completion of the first phase of its large-scale pilot tests for RotoDynamic Technology at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in the Netherlands in 2023. The tests demonstrated the technology’s heat-generating capabilities, surpassing the temperature of 1000°C—significantly above the range of conventional resistive heaters—and proving the technology’s capability to reach temperatures up to 1700°C, essential for the highest temperatures required in steel production.
As part of the agreement, both companies will collaboratively devise a roadmap aimed at achieving low-carbon production, facilitating the phased rollout of RDH Technology of JSW Steel and Cement manufacturing processes.
PK Murugan, President, JSW Steel Vijayanagar & Salem Works said the deployment of RDH Technology is expected to have a sizeable impact on the decarbonisation of the Group’s manufacturing process.
Joonas Rauramo, CEO, Coolbrook, said Coolbrook’s pilot test results have already proven the capabilities of the technology. The deployment of the technology in JSW Steel’s production will demonstrate the impact of electrification with clean energy in steel manufacturing processes.
RDH technology utilises renewable electricity to power high-temperature industrial processes in steel and cement production, significantly reducing the need to burn fossil fuels. In steel manufacturing, the technology targets the decarbonisation of manufacturing processes in traditional blast furnaces and the direct reduction of iron (DRI) based production of iron and steel.