Cleveland-Cliffs Toledo Direct Reduction Plant
Large load · 300 MILLARD AVENUE, Toledo, OH
Cleveland-Cliffs' Toledo Direct Reduction plant converts Minnesota direct-reduction-grade iron ore pellets with natural gas into hot-briquetted iron (HBI) for electric arc furnaces, basic oxygen furnaces and blast furnaces. Built on a brownfield site near the Port of Toledo at a cost of about $1 billion, it began production in 2020 with nominal capacity of 1.9 million metric tons of HBI a year. The site was developed with electric power and gas capacity for two plants.
Overview
Cleveland-Cliffs broke ground in April 2018 on what was then a $700 million, 1.6-million-ton HBI plant at the Toledo Ironville Terminal site near the Port of Toledo. The company says the finished investment reached $1 billion and the plant has nominal capacity of 1.9 million metric tons a year. It was commissioned in 2020, and at a June 2021 ribbon cutting with Ohio Governor Mike DeWine the company reported six months of continuous production with nearly 160 employees.
Profile
- Site utilities and room for a second unit
- The Toledo site was chosen in part because it offered rail and port access and all of the necessary utilities, including water, electric power and natural gas. Chief executive Lourenco Goncalves told Fastmarkets in 2018 that the site has enough sewer, gas and power capacity to accommodate two plants, and that Cliffs had the space and infrastructure to build a second HBI unit in Toledo if it chose to, with the decision deferred until the first unit was complete.
- Natural gas feed and a hydrogen option
- The plant's only raw materials are natural gas and DR-grade iron ore pellets from Cliffs' Northshore Mining operations in Minnesota; gas both reduces the iron oxide and heats the process. Cliffs says the plant was designed to take hydrogen: without modifying the configuration it could replace up to 30 percent of natural gas consumption with hydrogen, and with equipment changes up to 70 percent.
Facility
- Activity
- Natural-gas-based direct reduction producing hot-briquetted iron (HBI)
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Site type
- Facility
- Operating status
- Operating
Related records
Timeline
- Apr 5, 2018
- Cleveland-Cliffs breaks ground on the Toledo HBI plant.
OH: Cleveland-Cliffs Breaks Ground for $700M, 130-Permanent-Job Plant | Trade and Industry Development
- Jan 1, 2020
- Production begins at the Toledo Direct Reduction plant.
Producing High Quality HBI in Toledo :: Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF)
- Jun 9, 2021
- Ribbon-cutting at the Direct Reduction plant after six months of operation.
Cleveland-Cliffs Holds Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at Direct Reduction Plant in Toledo :: Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF)