Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. has announced that its subsidiary, NextChem, has been awarded an EP Lump Sum subcontract by Paul Wurth, a company of the SMS group, to implement two Catalytic Partial Oxidation reactor units. These will be installed at an existing integrated steel production plant in the Russian Federation.

NextChem will be a technology partner in order to implement natural gas- fed syngas generation for a blast furnace by substituting coke with a syngas production of 140,000 Nm³/h via its proprietary CPO technology.

The project’s scope of work includes the supply of proprietary technology, Basic Design and Detailed Engineering, proprietary equipment and catalyst. This will facilitate efficient natural gas conversion to hot syngas.

NextChem will be also responsible for the supervision over the conduct of tests and the start-up of the CPO reactor units. The project’s completion is expected within 16 months from the signing date.

SMS group selected NextChem because of its knowledge and expertise as a technology provider and its leadership in syngas production from natural gas.

The proprietary CPO technology to be deployed by Nextchem enables the production of synthesis gas from natural gas and other gaseous hydrocarbons with enriched air and air-blown reactors.

Pierroberto Folgiero, Maire Tecnimont Group and NextChem Chief Executive Officer, said: “The steel sector is today one of the more interesting, hard-to-abate industries on the road to decarbonization. This is one of the technologies from our portfolio that reduces the use of coal by substituting it with a synthetic gas derived from natural gas. This will be a crucial component of the energy transition. Such a technology will help close the gap between the renewables’ installed capacity and the growing demand from energy not derived from coal”.