Gerdau-PNW CIVS Digitalization and Decarbonization Partnership Presented to Industry 4.0

On November 16th, CIVS Director Chenn Zhou and CIVS Associate Director for Operations Armin Silean were invited to present the Gerdau-PNW CIVS Partnership at the Gerdau’s virtual seminar on “the 4.0 Best Projects GAB/GSB/GLN/GSN”.

The presentation highlighted the recent $10 million grant, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO), for the Development and Demonstration of an Industrial Hydrogen-fired Steel Reheating Furnace (H2RF).

One of Gerdau’s reheating furnaces in Michigan will be used as the site for the first-of-its-kind demonstration under the leadership of Senior Director of Engineering for Gerdau, João Gonzaga, and Improvement Facilitator for Gerdau, Kevin Kondrat. The presentation also included impactful outcomes of other collaborated projects such as the Reheat Furnace, Electric Arc Furnace, and Smart Ladle.

Gerdau is the largest scrap metal recycler in Latin America and a leading global steel producer that operates a network of metals recycling locations, steel mills, and downstream facilities to transform 11 million tons of recycled scrap metal annually into a wide range of steel products. Gerdau is a member of the Steel Manufacturing Simulation & Visualization Consortium (SMSVC). Joao Gonzaga is a member of the SMSVC board representing Gerdau and an alumnus of Purdue Northwest.