Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Energy-intensive industry: Equipment and suppliers

Blast furnaces, potlines and kilns built to run for years

What this tab covers For each method, the main pieces of equipment, who makes them (by region) and what they are made of (bill of materials).

Each process rests on a few large, long-lived machines: furnaces and converters, electrolytic cells, rotary kilns, reactors and compressors. Most of their mass is steel and refractory brick. Provider lists are left empty where no reliable ranking was found.

Blast furnace and oxygen steel

Blast furnace11

Reduces iron ore with coke to make liquid iron

Europe Danieli, SMS group, Primetals Technologies
Bill of materials
  • Shell and cooling staves: Steel shell with copper or cast-iron water-cooled staves
  • Lining: Carbon and alumina refractory bricks
  • Hot-blast stoves: Silica and alumina checker bricks
Basic oxygen converter11

Blows oxygen into liquid iron to burn off excess carbon

Europe SMS group, Primetals Technologies, Danieli
Bill of materials
  • Vessel: Steel shell lined with magnesia-carbon refractory
  • Oxygen lance: Water-cooled copper tip

Electric arc furnace and hydrogen DRI

Electric arc furnace111617

Melts scrap or DRI with electric arcs

Europe Primetals Technologies, SMS group, Danieli
Bill of materials
  • Electrodes: Graphite electrodes made from needle coke
  • Furnace transformer: Electrical steel core and copper windings
  • Shell and roof: Water-cooled steel panels, magnesia refractory hearth
Direct reduction shaft furnace41620

Reduces pellets to solid iron with hydrogen or reformed gas at about 800 C

United States Midrex Technologies (Kobe Steel group) Europe Tenova and Danieli (Energiron), SMS group
Bill of materials
  • Reactor shell: Refractory-lined steel shaft
  • Gas heater: Alloy tubes heating the reducing gas
Water electrolyser21

Makes hydrogen; most of the route's electricity

Europe thyssenkrupp nucera
Bill of materials
  • Stack: Nickel electrodes (alkaline) or iridium and platinum on membranes (PEM)
  • Rectifier: Power electronics converting AC to DC

Aluminium smelting

Reduction cell (pot) and potline5

Electrolyses alumina dissolved in molten cryolite

Europe Hydro
Bill of materials
  • Anodes: Baked petroleum coke and pitch, consumed in use
  • Cathode: Graphitised carbon blocks with steel collector bars
  • Busbars: Aluminium conductors carrying several hundred kA

Cement kiln

Rotary kiln with preheater tower and precalciner1923

Calcines raw meal and sinters it into clinker at 1,400-1,500 C

Europe and United States Fuller Technologies (formerly FLSmidth Cement) China Sinoma International Engineering (CNBM group)
Bill of materials
  • Kiln shell: Rolled steel tube, often 4-6 m diameter
  • Lining: Magnesia-spinel and alumina refractory bricks
  • Cyclones: Steel with refractory lining

Haber-Bosch ammonia

Steam methane reformer10

Turns natural gas and steam into hydrogen and CO2

Europe Topsoe, thyssenkrupp Uhde, Casale United States KBR
Bill of materials
  • Reformer tubes: Centrifugally cast nickel-chromium alloy tubes
  • Catalyst: Nickel on alumina

Chlor-alkali

Membrane electrolyser621

Splits brine into chlorine, caustic soda and hydrogen

Europe thyssenkrupp nucera (claims about 50% of the membrane electrolysis market)
Bill of materials
  • Anode: Titanium coated with ruthenium and iridium oxides (dimensionally stable anode)
  • Cathode: Nickel, often with catalytic coating
  • Membrane: Perfluorinated sulfonate and carboxylate polymer

Motors and compressed air

Induction motor with variable-speed drive12

Turns electricity into shaft power; the drive matches speed to demand

Bill of materials
  • Stator and rotor: Laminated electrical steel
  • Windings and rotor bars: Copper wire; aluminium or copper cage
  • Drive: IGBT or silicon carbide power electronics
Air compressor13

Compresses air for tools and controls

Bill of materials
  • Screw element: Machined steel rotors
  • Motor: Electrical steel and copper
  • Heat exchangers: Aluminium or copper coolers

Sources

  1. World DRI production reaches 140.8 Mt in 2024 Midrex Technologies, 2025
  2. Hydro Karmoy technology pilot successfully verified Norsk Hydro, 2020
  3. Electrochemical Manufacturing in the Chemical Industry (Botte, The Electrochemical Society Interface, Fall 2014) The Electrochemical Society, 2014
  4. Licensor selection picking up for renewable ammonia synthesis loops Ammonia Energy Association, 2024
  5. Looking at the plant engineering market: Danieli, Primetals, SMS group Expometals (metallurgy trade news), 2017
  6. Policy brief: Electric motor systems, why are they important? IEA 4E Electric Motor Systems Annex (EMSA), 2025
  7. Improving Compressed Air System Performance: A Sourcebook for Industry (third edition) US Department of Energy and Compressed Air Challenge, 2016
  8. thyssenkrupp Steel signed a contract with SMS group for the construction of the DRI plant GMK Center, 2023
  9. Dillinger and ROGESA choose Primetals Technologies as supplier for major decarbonisation project Primetals Technologies (company press release), 2024
  10. Danieli selected as green technology supplier for Tata Steel IJmuiden GMK Center, 2024
  11. thyssenkrupp nucera General Investor Presentation, May 2026 (company claims) thyssenkrupp nucera, 2026
  12. Pacific Avenue Capital Partners relaunch FLSmidth Cement as Fuller Technologies CemNet (International Cement Review), 2025
  13. Supplying the cement industry Global Cement, 2019