CELSA Group is awarded 2.5 million euros for its Industry 4.0 projects from the ACTIVA program of the Ministry of Industry
- Of the 33 projects approved by the Ministry of Industry in the 2021 call for aid to I+D+I projects in the field of connected industry 4.0, a total of 7 have been driven by the family company for the digitalization of its industrial processes in Barcelona.
Barcelona, 15 February 2022.- CELSA Group, first European low emissions and circular steel company has been awarded €2.5 million through the ACTIVA Financing Program, that the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism destines to aid to I+D+I projects in the field of Connected Industry 4.0.
The family company has been awarded economic financing to carry out 7 initiatives to digitize its industrial processes in Barcelona, of the total of the 33 projects approved by the Ministry, or what is the same, it will receive 25% of the total funds distributed in this annual call for aid that dates back to 2016.
Roadmap to digital transformation
The clear commitment of recent years to digitalization has driven CELSA Group to position itself as a clear reference in the advance towards the paradigm of The Connected Industry 4.0. The company has broadly defined its roadmap towards digital transformation and has also made an exhaustive diagnosis of its digital capabilities and a detailed proposal of new technologies and tools to be implemented.
The projects proposed by CELSA address new processes in different operational areas based on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Internet of Things or Big Data solutions, and their realization and implementation will promote a new connected and highly efficient work environment.
“The support received is a significant incentive for CELSA Group to accelerate its digital transformation, which allows it to have reliable data to be able to move towards the development of products with greater added value and promote better decision-making, in order to increase its competitiveness, as well as the sustainability and circularity of its processes”, as explained by its CEO, Francesc Rubiralta.
CELSA Group’s strategic objectives are to achieve complete circularity over the next five years and become a Net Positive company by 2040, ten years ahead of the European Union’s decarbonisation forecasts. Likewise, the company that is already low carbon today, plans to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions by 70%, in 2025.
Circular and low carbon steel production model
The company bases its industrial model on circularity, which implies that 93% of the raw material it uses comes from recycled material and, in addition, the steel it produces is 100% recyclable. In addition, 90% of the waste and by-products generated by its production processes are recovered and become new value-added products. Likewise, CELSA Group is, unlike much of the steel sector in Europe, a company that produces low-emission steel since it uses electric arc furnaces, the most sustainable system that currently exists and that emits 9 times less CO2 than that of conventional blast furnaces.
The CELSA Group projects that have been included in the ACTIVA Financing program are:
- the implementation of automatic guided vehicles for the evacuation of the husk that is generated in the reheating furnace of the rolling mill.
- the development of an intelligent autonomous solution for the loading of the furnace, which makes the movements of the crane more efficient, which optimizes its consumption, and which increases at the same time the safety of the installation.
- a new remote-control system for the loading cranes of the structural profile train reheating furnace, using advanced sensors and intelligent automatic systems.
- a system of quantification and classification of raw material through artificial intelligence, through the incorporation of machine learning functions for image analysis and high-resolution image capture techniques through the use of drones.
- the development of new solutions for predictive maintenance in industrial processes, through the incorporation of machine learning functions to predict maintenance, based on data collected from different points of the steel process. New systems for the control and monitoring of the melting and refining of scrap, thanks to the implementation of thermographic technologies, enabling predictive decision-making about the process through Machine Learning and Deep Learning tools.
- the incorporation of collaborative robotics technologies to improve productivity and technological training in the main industrial areas of CELSA Group. To this end, it is committed to the automation of strategic production stages of the steel manufacturing process through the design and development of robotic systems.
About CELSA Group
CELSA Group is Europe’s leading producer of low-emission, circular steel. It recycles ferrous scrap to produce steel in electric arc furnaces, the most sustainable system in existence. Its integration throughout the steel value chain makes it a circular reference company.
It has more than 120 workplaces in the world and generates direct, indirect and induced employment for more than 70,000 professionals. Annually it recycles 8 million tons of ferrous scrap that it destines to the production of steel, and also contributes to the recycling of another 1.5 million tons of materials, thus avoiding the accumulation of waste in landfills and obtaining again products of high value for society, avoiding the use of natural resources. The company is made up of 6 business groups with steel mills, rolling mills, processing plants, distribution companies and recyclers.
