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Wilhelm Borchers - Design and Construction of Electric Furnaces
Wilhelm Borchers - Design and Construction of Electric Furnaces
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Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Apdo. Postal 75-874, D. F., CP 07300
México. E-mail (RDM): rodolfo@ragnatela.net.mx 1) Instituto Tecnológico de Morelia, Materials Research Center, Av.
Tecnológico 1500, Morelia Michoacán México.
(Received on December 1, 2000; accepted in final form on February 13, 2001 )
A mathematical simulator for the melting operation of direct reduced iron in electric arc furnaces (EAF)
has been developed. The simulator takes into account the changes of physical properties of slag with time
as well as the operating aspects of the process by using different input types of the raw materials into the
furnace. Control of the bath oxidation is performed through the injection of carbon fines in the slag. Cost-op-
timized mass and energy balances are employed as generators of initial and boundary conditions to start the
solution of a set of ordinary differential equations whose solution allows to know the dynamic changes of
temperature and metal and slag chemistry with time. Simulation results indicate that the final bath oxidation
level is more dependent on the process routes than on the quality of the direct reduced iron (DRI) being
melted. High carbon wettability by slags and basic slags are the most suitable conditions to promote iron
oxide reduction in order to maintain a low bath oxidation. Process outputs influenced by complex EAF oper-
ations using different DRI metallizations, different sequences for feeding raw materials in the furnace, injec-
tion of carbon and oxygen and different types of inputs are well predicted by the present mathematical sim-
ulator.
KEY WORDS: EAF; direct reduced iron; melting; carbon injection; mass transfer; kinetics; slag.
Min CostWDRICDRIWSCCSCWLIMECLIMEWCOKECCOKE
tions of metal and slag are uniform throughout the bath at
EECEWO2CO2CEL ...................................(1) some given time. Chemical reaction subsystems are shown
in Fig. 1, and these are the entry zone of DRI, the metal–
Subjected to:
slag interface and the jetting zone of carbon injection to
[A][Wi][Di] ..............................(2) control FeO contents and the slag foaming operation.
Mathematical models for these chemical reaction subsys-
Where [A] is a coefficient matrix formed by the results of
tems are described in the following lines. At the end, all
the mass and energy balances, Wi is a vector of unknowns
these models are assembled into differential mass balances
weights and Di is a vector of restrictions, for instance maxi-
to yield a system of ordinary differential equations that de-
mum mass% of residual elements, maximum amount of
scribe the process dynamics.
DRI to be melted, etc. The costs of every raw material are
represented by the C’s, in Eq. (1) and the sub-indexes DRI, 2.4.1. Kinetics of Iron Oxide Reduction by Injection of
SC, LIME, COKE, E, O2 and CEL hold for direct reduced Carbon, Carbon–Slag Interface
iron, scrap, lime, coke, electrical energy, oxygen and elec- Metallization of DRI is the most important parameter to
trodes, respectively (see Nomenclature). control the metallic yield, plant productivity and economy.
This optimization problem was solved through the When a DRI with low metallization (for example 87–89%)
Modified Simplex Method.11) This model allows then the is melted, the levels of FeO, at the end of a heat, can reach
calculation of the amounts of DRI, different types of scrap, values as high as 45–50 mass%. This condition leads to flat
lime, coke, electric energy per ton of steel under some baths, forming slags with very low capacity to foam, bring-
given restrictions which depend on the particular conditions ing on very high consumption of electric energy and con-
of a determined EAF plant. sumption of furnace lining refractory. The later is due to the
direct radiation from the arc to the walls and the roof of the
2.2. Slag Properties
furnace. To avoid this situation there is also a chemical
Physical properties of complex steelmaking slags like “window” where the slag composition, mainly iron oxide
density, viscosity and surface tension will be employed in concentrations, is suitable to maintain foaming properties in
this mathematical simulator. Density and surface tension order to shield the arc radiation.6) These are the reasons of
data were correlated from the work of Mills and Keene,12) why is necessary to keep the iron oxidation under control
as was done in a previous work,15) while viscosity data were during DRI melting. To do so, during the last years the in-
taken from Urbain.13) jection of carbonaceous materials to reduce the iron oxide
2.3. Thermodynamic Models in complex steelmaking slags has become a common prac-
A quantitative description of the thermodynamics of the tice. A mathematical model to simulate the kinetics of this
involved phases, slag, metal and gas is required in the pre- reaction is already published.15,20,21) These papers describe
sent mathematical simulator; in the later case the simple with details the mechanisms of chemical reaction between
ideal gas law was used. Thermodynamic models for the carbonaceous particles with FeO in complex steelmaking
condensed phases, metal and slag are more elaborated. For slags injected through a lance using a carrier gas. Re-
the metallic phase, the Wagner’s interaction parameter duction rate kinetics of FeO is thus predicted as function of
model was employed14,16) and for the slag phase the quasi- lancing parameters and the physical–chemical properties of
chemical structural model17–19) was integrated as a subrou- slag, which are time dependent.
tine in the main program just as is explained in Ref. 15). Finally, the rate kinetics of iron oxide reduction in com-
plex steelmaking slags by carbonaceous particles, in the jet-
2.4. Chemical Reaction Subsystems ting zone is calculated through the expression,15)
The present model assumes that the EAF bath is a semi-
continuous stirred tank reactor so that chemical composi-
dWDRI sl
d (WFeO sl
FFeO ) dWDRI M
dt
226 403.57 5 016.66(% MET)
dt
∑F DRI
FeO
dt
FeO
MO ∑ KR 1 O2
27.83(%MET) .................................(9)
2
M FeO AN CO VR ..............................(13)
This equation was derived statistically after thousands of
heats in the EAF’s of IMEXSA Steel in Lázaro Cárdenas where the third term of the RHS of Eq. (13) is linked to
City, Mexico. The physical meaning is the capacity of the Eqs. (4) and (5) and the last term in the RHS is the rate re-
furnace, with the current transformers to melt down DRI duction by the injection of graphite as expressed by Eq. (3).
pellets without the presence of slag overflows. Evidently, Total Mass Balance for the Slag Phase: The total mass
this a parameter that should be previously found for a given balance is the sum of all kinetic rates of the oxides that con-
furnace. The summation symbol in the RHS of Eq. (8) indi- form this phase,
cates that actually the feeding operation of DRI into the fur- sl
nace can be considered as a step input function. Since DRI dWsl sl
d ( FCaO Wsl ) d ( FAl2O3Wsl ) d ( FMgO
sl
Wsl )
can be fed in an intermittent way the summation is per- dt dt dt dt
formed over every feeding period of DRI. All the summa- sl
d ( FSiO Wsl ) sl
d ( FFeO Wsl )
tion terms in the following rate equations have the same 2
......................(14)
physical meaning. If any raw material is fed as an impulse dt dt
then the step-input function can be changed into a Dirac’s d
function. Naturally a mixed feeding pattern including im- 2.5.2. The Metal Phase
pulse and step inputs is also quite possible in the present In these balances manganese and phosphorus are ne-
mathematical simulator. These characteristics provide to glected, the first because 100% charges of DRI are assumed
this simulator a great versatility to make closer predictions and the second because its concentration is low enough to
of the EAF dynamics during DRI melting and steel refin- be neglected. Then a simple iron–carbon melt is considered
ing. here.
Alumina Balance: Alumina is mainly contained in DRI Iron Balance: Sources of iron units are those coming in
pellets, thus, its mass balance gives, the feed of DRI, the reduction of iron oxide through the
metal–slag reaction and the reduction of iron oxide by
d (Wsl FAlsl O ) dWDRI
dt
2 3
∑ F DRI
Al2O3
dt
...........(10)
graphite injected through the lance, the sink is the iron oxi-
dized by the gaseous oxygen employed to decarburize the
bath. The mass balance is expressed by,
Magnesite Balance: Similarly, for magnesite contained
d ( FFeSteelWSteel ) dWDRI
∑F
in the DRI pellets the mass balance is,
DRI
Fe M CO N CO A VR
dt dt
sl lm
d (Wsl FMgO ) dWCaO M Fe
FMgO
lm
VCaO δ (τ τ add )1 K1RO2 ..............................(15)
dt dt M FeO
DRI dWDRI
∑ FMgO
dt
...............(11) Carbon Balance: The source of carbon units is that
coming in the feed of DRI and the sinks are the reaction of
d ( FCSteelWSteel ) dWDRI
dt
∑F DRI
C
dt
MC
M C AN CO K 2 RO2 ......(16)
M CO
dWCO M d ( FCSteelWSteel )
CO .............(18)
dt MC dt
Fig. 4. Model results of the effect of DRI metallization and Fig. 5. Slag chemistry as affected by a DRI of low metallization
process routes and bath oxidation. with and without carbon injection.
ters for carbon injection, DRI feeding and lime addition, no oxygen is injected, however, this later case will leave a
both (DRI and lime) as step inputs, were kept constant in high concentration of carbon in the melt making necessary
all cases simulated here. In the first case the lance angle the injection of oxygen in order to decarburize it. Injection
was 60° with a diameter of 0.052 m. High purity lime (97% of gaseous oxygen to a melt of high metallization (95%)
lime, 1.5% MgO and 1.5% SiO2) was fed together with with a flow rate of 22 m3/min (10 m3/ton) will increase the
DRI with a flow of 115 kg/min. The type of carbon simulat- final concentration of FeO to 32%. These results show that
ed is that with name Shell M in Table 1. melting high quality DRI does not necessarily assure a low
Figure 4 shows the concentration of FeO, in mass%, for concentration of FeO. A proper balance between O2, carbon
two cases including DRI metallizations of 87% and 95%, injection and DRI metallization is required. A melt pro-
(low and high metallizations), respectively. DRI and fluxes duced by high quality DRI yields 23% FeO but is increased
are fed in a step-input pattern from the beginning of the to 32% with the addition of 10 m3/min of oxygen from the
heat until its end. The plot illustrates several cases, namely beginning of the heat. Other case, shown in the same figure,
No carbon–No O2 injection and melting with carbon injec- considers the melting of DRI batches with different metal-
tion with a particle size of 300 m m (40 kg/min with a flow lizations (mix case). The heat starts with melting a material
rate of the carrier gas of 300 l/min) for both metallizations. with 87% metallization during the first 40 min followed by
And a mix case where during the first 40 min low metalliza- a batch of DRI with 95% metallization for the rest of the
tion DRI is fed without carbon injection and later, until the heat without carbon injection neither oxygen injection. The
heat end, carbon is injected. It can be seen that when a low final FeO content reaches around 33%. It can be seen in
metallization DRI is employed, and neither carbon particles Fig. 4, how different procedures lead to different process
nor oxygen gas is supplied, the concentration of FeO rises routes to reach similar FeO contents in the slag, indicating
very fast during the first 2 min. This is due to the high the need to design optimized oxygen lancing, carbon injec-
amount of iron oxide in this type of material but also due to tion and DRI feeding operations to improve the metallic
the low initial weight of slag (hot heel) of about 1.15 t. The yield.
final concentration of FeO is 46%, which is a value report- Figure 5 shows the slag chemistry dynamics, including
ed in actual melting operations6) when such a low metal- the concentrations of lime, magnesia, silica and alumina,
lization DRI is charged into the EAF. On the other hand, for the case when DRI of low metallization is melted with-
when a DRI of high metallization is fed under the same out the injection of carbon and with the injection of carbon
conditions described above for low metallization, FeO with a mass flow rate of 40 kg/min. The shapes of the
reaches a final concentration of 23%, that is half the value curves correspond to the step-input patterns for feeding
when a DRI with low metallization is melted. Thus, by in- lime and DRI simulated in these cases. With the injection
creasing DRI metallization, from 87 to 95%, a theoretical of carbon the concentrations of the oxides other than FeO
decrease in the oxidation state of the slag of 23% can be increase. This result is the consequence of a lower concen-
achieved. When carbon injection is started since the first tration of FeO when carbon particles are injected into the
minutes of the heat with a mass flow rate of 40 kg/min, the slag. The increase in concentration of these oxides, other
concentration of FeO at the end of the melting operation is than FeO, is a simple dilution effect. The plot also shows
decreased to 32%, when a low DRI metallization is being the concentration of alumina and MgO, of 4 and 5%, re-
employed. Then, according with the model, by injecting spectively, these oxides come from the DRI and flux com-
carbon particles to an oxidized slag, FeO is decreased from position employed. With carbon injection the slag V ratio
46 to 32% when a low metallization DRI is melted. (Vmass%CaO/mass%SiO2) ends at about 1.7 for both
Similarly, for the melting of DRI of high metallization, with cases. Actually impulse feedings of lime would be suitable
carbon injection, FeO is decreased even further, from 23 to to rise up the slag basicity to 2.0 in order to decrease the
12%. Such a low value of FeO is possible considering that slag line wear, by chemical attack, and to improve the de-
(a)
(b)
Fig. 9. Effect of carbon reactivity on iron bath oxidation during Fig. 10. Effect of carbon wettability on iron bath oxidation dur-
DRI melting in EAF. ing DRI melting in EAF.