Company Wasabi Energy Limited TIDM WAS Headline ArcelorMittal Steel Released 07:00 17-Nov-2011 Number 2720S07
RNS Number : 2720S Wasabi Energy Limited 17 November 2011
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17 November 2011
Wasabi Energy Signs Term Sheet with ArcelorMittal South Africa, for 30 MW Kalina Cycle® Power Plant.
¤ Term Sheet to build, own & operate 30 MW Kalina Cycle® Plant at Vanderbijlpark Steel Plant
¤ Steel Plant is owned by AM-SA, part of the ArcelorMittal group, the largest steel producer in the world
¤ Project involves utilising Kalina Cycle® technology to recover waste heat and generate power
¤ Implementation of project to be staged with initial 6 MW followed by a 24 MW Kalina Cycle® plant
¤ Continued implementation of Wasabi Energy's build own operate Kalina Cycle® strategy
Wasabi Energy (ASX: WAS, AIM: WAS) is pleased to announce the signing of a term sheet with ArcelorMittal South Africa to build, own and operate two Kalina Cycle®1 power plants at the Vanderbijlpark Steel Plant, in South Africa.
The Kalina Cycle® power plants will be designed by Wasabi Energy's inhouse Kalina Cycle® engineering team with further engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) support from leading international firms including South African EPC provider Group Five and Power Engineers from the United States. The proposed power plants will be 100% owned by Wasabi Energy and will utilise the Kalina Cycle® technology to efficiently generate electricity from the waste heat released from the hot strip mill at the Vanderbijlpark Steel Plant. Wasabi Energy will sell electricity produced by the Kalina Cycle® power plants back to ArcelorMittal's Vanderbijlpark Steel Plant under a long term power purchase agreement.
As evidenced by today's announcement and Wasabi Energy's recent global licensing deal with FLSmidth for the cement sector - the ongoing global pressures to reduce the energy and emissions intensity of industrial processes continues to support the adoption of energy efficient technologies globally, particularly the Kalina Cycle®.
The Vanderbijlpark Kalina Cycle¨ Project8,9
Key Terms of Agreement
The key terms of the agreement to implement the Kalina Cycle® technology at the Vanderbijlpark Steel Plant, are as follows:
¤ ArcelorMittal South Africa will supply waste heat from its hot strip mills at Vanderbijlpark Steel Plant to Wasabi Energy at no cost
¤ The waste heat will be converted to 30MW of electricity by two Kalina Cycle® power plants to be designed, built, 100% owned and operated by Wasabi Energy
¤ Wasabi Energy will sell the electricity produced by the Kalina Cycle® plants back to ArcelorMittal South Africa under a long term power purchase agreement (PPA)
¤ A full feasibility study will commence immediately and is expected to take approximately 20 weeks to complete
¤ The Kalina Cycle® power plants will be built in two stages, initially a 6 MW plant followed by a 24 MW plant
¤ The 6 MW Kalina Cycle® plant is expected to be operational in the second half of 2013 after permits are obtained
¤ ArcelorMittal South Africa will have an option to acquire the Kalina Cycle® power plants at terms to be agreed
Wasabi Energy will consider a variety of funding options for the Kalina Cycle® power plants.
Partnering with ArcelorMittal South Africa
ArcelorMittal South Africa is the largest steel producer on the African continent, with a production capacity of 7.8 million tonnes of liquid steel per annum. The steel operations comprise of four major facilities which produce the flat and long steel products. ArcelorMittal South Africa is the largest supplier of flat steel products in Africa and Vanderbijlpark has the capacity to produce 4.4 million tonnes of liquid steel per annum, which constitutes some 78% of South Africa's flat steel requirements.
ArcelorMittal South Africa is 52% owned by ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel producer with steel plants in 60 countries and crude steel production of 90.6 million tonnes, equivalent to 8% of the world's steel output through 65 integrated, mini-mills and integrated mini-mill facilities. ArcelorMittal recently announced3 one of its current global focus areas, is to make "efficient use of energy and raw materials while minimizing (our) environmental impact and improving (our) competitiveness".
South African Electricity Sector & Emissions Reductions
Eskom, the major electricity sector utility in Africa generates approximately 95% of the electricity used in South Africa and approximately 45% of the electricity used in Africa4. In February 2010, Eskom announced that its electricity tariffs for large power users would increase from ZAR52.30 c/kWh to ZAR65.85 c/kWh in 2012/13, an annual increase of 25.9%. The incentive to reduce electricity in Southern Africa is driven not only by the global efforts to reduce CO2 emissions, but also the reality that it is economically unsustainable to utilise electricity inefficiently.
Wasabi Energy is partnering with ArcelorMittal South Africa to improve energy efficiency of the Vanderbijlpark Steel Plant by implementing two Kalina Cycle® power plants with combined generation capacity of 30 MW. Once installed the Kalina Cycle® plants will deliver significant improvements in the efficiency of energy use at the Vanderbijlpark Steel Plant. Based on reductions in CO2 emissions already achieved at the plant, the implementation of the Kalina Cycle® technology is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 258,000 tonnes per year5.
Steel Sector Opportunities
The iron and steel industries are energy intensive industries with the operation of electric arc furnaces (EAF) involved in the steel manufacturing process being responsible for consuming large amounts of electricity. According to statistics published by the International Energy Agency6 the electricity consumed in the production of steel is decreasing (kWh per tonne), however the overall production of steel continues to grow. Increasingly a large proportion of process gases generated in the integrated steel making process: oxygen steel furnace gas, blast-furnace gas and coke-oven gas are used to produce electricity and heat6, providing opportunities for adoption of the Kalina Cycle®.
Application of the Kalina Cycle® technology
The first commercial Kalina Cycle® plant was installed at the Sumitomo Metals operated Kashima Steel Works in Japan in 1999. The 3.4 MW Kalina Cycle® power plant has been operating successfully since it was installed and provides a direct reference for an operating Kalina Cycle® plant in the steel sector.
Similarly the Kalina Cycle® technology has been operating successfully in a number of other sectors including geothermal, solar thermal, oil refinery as well as the recently announced licensing agreement to implement the technology in the global cement sector, highlighting the versatility of the Kalina Cycle®.
ArcelorMittal South Africa - Snapshot8,9
Overview
ArcelorMittal South Africa is committed to transforming tomorrow's steel industry through sustainability, quality and leadership. ArcelorMittal South Africa is demonstrating this commitment by being a signatory to the national energy accord in South Africa and has a target of reducing their energy consumption by 12% by 2014. In addition, globally ArcelorMittal has set a target to reduce CO2 emissions by 8% by 2020 through process improvements and energy efficiency. To achieve these targets ArcelorMittal South Africa is focused on reducing their reliance on the national electricity grid and investigating cleaner forms of energy to significantly reduce their indirect carbon emissions7.
As part of the global ArcelorMittal Group, ArcelorMittal South Africa has access to best practice processes and world-class research and development. This together with a culture of continuous improvement will ensure that the company remains at the cutting edge of the international steel industry.
Key Corporate Information
ArcelorMittal South Africa
Employees: 9,100
Revenues: US$3,659 million
Total Assets: US$3,839 million
Steel Production: 5.67 million tonnes
Domestic Sales 3.41 million tonnes
Export Sales 1.63 million tonnes
* - Based on USD1 = ZAR8.26 at 4 Oct 2011.
ArcelorMittal Group
Employees: 273,811
Revenues: US$78 billion
Steel Production: 90.6 million tonnes
Market Share: 8% of global production
Comment from the Chairman of Wasabi Energy
Executive Chairman of Wasabi Energy, Mr. John Byrne commented:
"The signing of this term sheet with ArcelorMittal South Africa marks a pivotal point in Wasabi Energy's strategy. We have been focusing our business development on energy intensive industries and aligning the Kalina Cycle® with leading industry players. We are delighted to be partnering with ArcelorMittal South Africa which is part of the world's largest steel producing group, ArcelorMittal, to build, own and operate a 30 MW Kalina Cycle® power plant at Vanderbijlpark steel plant in South Africa."
"ArcelorMittal South Africa are putting into action their commitment for transforming tomorrow and significantly improving their energy efficiency at the Vanderbijlpark steel plant. To meet the global greenhouse gas reductions, there needs to be a focus on harnessing waste heat and turning it into electricity and ArcelorMittal South Africa are demonstrating their industry leadership in this area. We are proud to work with a company that lives its values."
"Partnering with ArcelorMittal South Africa on this project opens a number of opportunities with the ArcelorMittal Group global operations and the Kalina Cycle® is ideally suited to produce power for their various steel mills."
"Within Southern Africa there are a number of energy intensive industries in which we are actively pursuing opportunities for Kalina Cycle® power plants. "
"Wasabi Energy is developing a number of build, own, operate projects with the aim of becoming an independent power producer. We have already announced two build, own, operate plants at Husavik, Iceland and Taufkirchen, Germany earlier this year. This Kalina Cycle® power plant at Vanderbijlpark Steel Plant in South Africa will accelerate this strategy."
"This Kalina Cycle® power plant with ArcelorMittal South Africa builds on our strategy of working with industry leading companies. Together with our licensing agreement with FLSmidth in the global cement and lime industries, our strategy is being delivered. We are continuing to work with a number of major companies in target industries such as the petrochemical and chemical industries. The focus on the conversion of waste heat to power and other renewable power projects provide a large number of opportunities for independent reliable power supply utilising the Kalina Cycle®."
For further information contact
Enquiries - Australia
Mr. John Byrne / Ms. Diane Bettess
Wasabi Energy Limited
Ph: +61 (0)3 9663 7132
Investor Enquiries - United Kingdom
Ms. Ivonne Cantu / or Ms. Beth McKiernan
Cenkos Securities plc
Ph: +44 (0)207 397 8900 / +44 (0) 131 220 9778
Media Enquiries - United Kingdom
Mr. Josh Royston / Ms. Hilary Millar
Threadneedle Communications
Ph: +44 (0) 207 653 9850
Corporate Information
General corporate information regarding Wasabi Energy and the companies Wasabi Energy holds a strategic investment in can be found in this section. Announcements regarding Wasabi Energy corporate developments are made to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and the London Stock Exchange's, Alternative Investment Market (AIM), are also available on the Wasabi Energy website. Additional information regarding the investee companies can be found at their respective web sites.
About Wasabi Energy
Wasabi Energy Limited is listed on both the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: WAS) and the AIM market in London (AIM: WAS). Wasabi Energy has major investments in three key strategic assets. It owns 100% of the Kalina Cycle® power generation technology which utilises low grade, waste heat from industrial facilities or geothermal sources to produce electricity. In a typical industrial application of the Kalina Cycle® technology can increase energy efficiency in an industrial plant by up to 20%. Wasabi Energy owns a 47.5% interest in Aqua Guardian Group, the developer of the AquaArmourTM water conservation and algal control product. It also owns a 16.39% interest in Australian Renewable Fuels, a separately ASX listed company (ASX: ARW) which produces liquid biofuels from a variety of non-food grade feedstocks.
Additional information:
www.wasabienergy.com
References
1 - Kalina Cycle® is a registered trademark of Global Geothermal Limited2. The Kalina Cycle® is a patented power cycle technology owned by Global Geothermal Limited.
2 -Global Geothermal Limited (U.K.) and Recurrent Engineering LLC (U.S.) are wholly owned subsidiaries of Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: WAS) and AIM (AIM: WAS) listed, Wasabi Energy Limited.
3 - Research & Development Presentation delivered by Lou Schorsch during ArcelorMittal's Investor Day on 23 September 2011.
4 - Eskom corporate information obtained from eskom.co.za/c/40/company-information/ on 27 September 2011.
5 - Carbon Dioxide emissions reductions based on calculations from a heat recovery steam generator installed at the Vanderbijlpark Steel Plant as reported in the ArcelorMittal South Africa 2010 Annual Report.
6 - International Energy Agency, Energy Statistics Manual, published 21 March 2011.
7 - Adapted from ArcelorMittal South Africa 2010 Annual Report.
8 - Adapted from presentation titled, ArcelorMittal South Africa Vanderbijlpark Works presented by Heinrich Kriel on 8 June 2011.
9 - Adapted from publicly available information about ArcelorMittal including the ArcelorMittal website.
This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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