Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann GmbH (Duisburg, Germany):

B. Kopitz, Mag. Eng.
H.-B. Beckmann, Mag. Eng., e-mail: heinz-bernd.beckmann@hkm.de

Krefeld, Germany:
L. Nelles, Freelance Journalist

The idea from the early 1980ies to support the blast furnaces at Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann GmbH with 100 % high quality coke from the own coke plant could be realized at present time. Therewith an essential contribution for securing the competitiveness and the production site of the steel mill having existed since 1909 is provided. 30 months after the start in September 2010 the project was completed and the first coke was pushed on 29 March 2014. With an excellent effort of all divisions and companies involved, the 420-million € project, as the largest single investment of Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann GmbH was brought to a prosperous end. A remarkable effort stands for the measurements relating media and energy systems as well as infrastructure regarding planning and implementation for the plant manufacturer, the constructors and for the operators of the plants. For the coke plant operators for example, who all the time had to adapt to planned and unintentional production stops to the conditions of the construction progress, is shown the influence to the production results. Now, after half a year of operation, the heating system of the new coke battery is almost optimized, all devices, including infrastructure conform to the new conditions and the production rate is about 90 %. Now, the blast furnaces of Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann are supplied with high-quality coke and are able to bring an essential contribution to the overall result of the steel mill and to secure the production site.