Metinvest is going to spend $17 million on construction of the pulverized coal injection machine in the blast furnace #4 of Azovstal, and plans to switch all blast furnace manufacture at the works from the expensive natural gas to pulverized coal fuel.
Machinery will be produced and supplied by Kutter (Germany).
There will be neither warehouse for coal, nor mills to produce pulverized coal fuel at Azovstal. The fuel will be produced at Mariupol Ilyich Iron and Steel Works and brought to Azovstal via railroad.
PCI system will allow Azovstal to increase blast furnace #4 capacities and decrease pig iron manufacturing costs by complete substitution of gas and partial substitution of coke with pulverized coal. This will let the company save some 31.3 kg of coke on each ton of pig iron as well as 300 million cubic meters of gas per year. (Ukrainian metal)