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FOAMINGOFSLAGSINEAF
FOAMINGOFSLAGSINEAF
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The Slag Foaming Practice in EAF and Its Influence on the Steelmaking Shop
Productivity
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R. D. MORALES.
Rub6nLule G..1) Francisco LOpEZ.1) Jorge CAMACHO1)
and J. A. ROMERO
Department of Metallurgy, Instituto Polit6cnico Nacional-ESlalE, Apdo. Postal 75-874. M6xico D.F., C.P. 07300.
1) IMEXSASteel, I
Fco. J. Majica No. B, L~zaro C~rdenas City, Michoac~n, M6xico.
IMEXSAsteel has a four electric arc furnaces (EAF) steelmaking shop which was originally designed to
melt a DRl/scrap ratio of 80/20 for producing steel slabs, but logistical and economical circumstances led
to a change in this ratio to 98.2/1 .8. This decision brought about increases on specific consumptions of
energy, electrodes, refractories and a loss of metallic yield amongother items. In order to improve melting
performance a study involving industrial measurementsand thermodynamic-kinetic aspects of slag foaming
wascarried out, Implementation of a slag foaming practice gave very encouraging results in the main process
variables; energy consumption decreased from 730 to 640kWh/t of steel while electrode consumption
decreased from 2.25kg/t of steel to I .81 kg/t of stee]. With regard to iron oxidation, iron oxide contents
in slag decreased from previous 36~~0wto/o values to 23-25wto/o increasing substantially metallic yield.
Overall process performance was improved and consequencesof this program can be directly seen during
secondary refining process of steel in LF.
KEYWORDS:
steelmaking; slag; foaming; EAF; DRl; thermal efficiency; electrical energy.
1. Introduction
a)To increase the DRI/scrap ratio from 80/20 to
98.2/1.8 in each charge of the EAF.
IMEXSAis acompanythat belongs to ISPAT
steel b) The improvement of metallurgical steel- EAF
group and located in the Pacific basin about 700 km
is making practices toward the production of high purity
to the southwest of Mexico City. The steelmaking automotive steels (Cu=0.04wto/o rirax., Ni=0.04 wtolo
complex consists on a direct reduced iron plant that max., Cr= 0.05 wto/o max. and Sn=0.015wto/o max.).
employs the HyL 111 process, steelmaking shop and a The approach followed to counteract negat,ive effects
slab continuous casting plant. The DRI plant has four on the overall process performance, coming from higher
reactors for iron ore reduction with an annual production DRI/scrap ratio in the charge and to accomplish with
2
capacity of million of prereduced iron per year. DRI the requirements of higher purity steels, was the im-
is discharged from reactors at
a low temperature equal plementation of a slag foaming practice. Twomain goals
to 60'C and is transported by an inclined rubber band were expected to be reached: Less oxidized slags and a
to four hoppers which are located above the EAF'S. muchbetter heat transfer efflciency from electric arc to
DRI is later fed by a computerized continuous feeding the molten bath. Process analysis, results and their
system (CFS) to the deltas of furnaces. This CFShas discussion will be the topics treated in next lines.
additional hoppers for storing other raw materials like
fluxes and coke. The steelmaking shop has four three
phase EAF's with ip 28" graphite electrodes powered
2. Metallurgical Aspects of DRI Melting in EAF
=
by four 125 MVA
transformers. lron yield during DRI melting depends on two basic
The inside diameter of furnace's hearth is and 8m factors; DRI/scrap and DRI metallization. Gen-
ratio
liquid steel capacity of each furnace is 220 ton per heat. erally speaking iron oxide content in slag increases as
Secondary refining facilities consist of two ladle that ratio increases and DRI metallization decreases,
furnaces powered by two 30 MVA
transformers, a This more dramatic when a low DRI metal-
effect is
50
L
l
~> 100%SGrap
40 > 80%DRI(met 89%)
>~
~80%ORI (met 86%)
\\ ;~~ - Equilibrium
O
O
LL
30 ~>~>~~
>~
(> ~~e;X )
x
~~00 ~
>~~-
>
> x
x
~ 20
(>
~ x ___~ X >
x
~~---~x_~>
x >
~ ~C>
~~
,~ x >
10 ~~ x
e Fig. 1.
Effect of charge characteristics on slag oxidation during
EAFsteelmaking.
o
o 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6
[Wto/o C]
1 800
0,9 750
O
O .Pr.aQt.iqe. .A
o)
,o 0,8 C:o
700
.~
O 0,7 =
~~ - - -Q Pr_actice C
,D e
LL 650
006
:~' e >
2, Praotice C~
O 600
o 0,5
,:;
UJ '**
. ".*.
0,3 500
87 88 89 90 91 92 80 82 84 86 88 90
Metalliration ot direct ,*d~*.d iron ('/.)
Thermal efticiency ('/.)
Fig. 2. Effect of direct reduced iron on the activity of iron Fig. 3. Energy consumptionasa tunction ofthermal efficiency
oxide in slags during steelmaking in EAF. for melting charges in EAFwith a 98.2/1 .8, DRI/scrap
ratio employing DRI metauizations 85-93 '/. .
mentioned in the precedent lines. These operation data which should be reduced consuming energy and this is
are comparedwith a thermodynamic equilibrium curve
calculated for a slag with B=(o/oCaO)/(o/oSi02)
a fact confirmed in various industrial reports.2~5) To
= 2, have a more quantitative idea about this item, massand
wtoloMg0=10, wto/oAl203=3, wto/oMn0=1 and energy balances were carried out which are briefly ex-
wto/oTi02=1 which is a typical composition of slags pressed by the following equations:
employed in this plant and Pco= I atm considering the
following equilibrium; ~(~J)Wj=Cj ......
..........(2)
to one and the iron oxide activities were calculated using where meaning of this symbols are given at the end of
a quasi chemical-model for complex slags.1)It is clear this paper.
that as the DRI/scrap ratio increases and DRI metal- The solution of this set of equations using appropriate
lization decreases this reaction
movesfurther awayfrom thermochemical data6) Iets to obtain the results shown
thermodynamic equilibrium. Besides, there is a direct in Fig. 3 where the specific consumption of ~nergy is
relationship betweenmetallization of DRIand iron oxide plotted against the thermal efficiency of an EAFcon-
activity in slags (belonging to experimental heats) as is sidering various DRI metallizations and assuming an
2
shownin Fig. which wascalculated by using final FeO electric efficiency of 90 o/o Which can be considered as
contents in slags formed with different DRI metalliza- reasonable for modernelectrical circuits for EAF's.7) As
tions and with the help of the quasi-chemical model. expected, consumption of energy rises as DRI metalliza-
These operating facts put on the spot the need for a tion decreases but the most important point to be noticed
better control of iron oxidation not only for rising iron is the strong influence of the thermal efficiency between
yield but for decreasing oxygen content in tapping steel a relatively small range of values for this p~rameter. Even
as well. for low DRImetallizations it is possible to obtain rather
Consumption of electrical energy (E.) also increases 10w consumptions of energy and this stresses the im-
whenDRI/scrap ratio in an EAFcharge increases and portance for a close control of this critical operation
DRImetallization decreases. This is a logical result since parameter.
ftself
a low DRImetallization meansa high iron oxide content Thermal efficiency is
a very complex function
r~5~~~~1LSl
THERMAL
EFFICIENCY L~~j~~iFSTl
Figure 6showsa comparison of results for iron oxide
I NG
FOAM
OF FUELS
contents in slag between practices A
and in EAF'sC 1
PAACTICE and 2respectively. It is evident that practice C
(EAF l)
promotes considerably less oxidized baths than practice
r~~~~~~~~~r]~
A (EAF 2) observing contents of FeOin slag 7-9 wto/o
TAP- To- TAP 10wer than those belonging to the conventional practiqe
TIME THICKNESS
A at carbon contents lower than 0.04wto/o in bath. In
Fig. 4. Operating factors that infiuence directly the thermal the samefigure there is an equilibrium curve of Reac-
efficiency of EAF'S. tion (1) just to compare the experimental results with
SEQUENTIAI
HEATFOR220 TONOF
STEEL
TOTALTONSOFDRI =222
TOTALTONSOFSCRAP=4
HOTHEEL= 30 TON
TAPSETTENG
7R
(9G MVV)
-25 Nm3/min/lance
6R
(93 MW) OXYGEN=3000Nm3/heat
4R
(B5 MW)
2R
(T4 MVV)
222 TONS
OFDRl, FEEDRATE:2800 Kg/MIN Fig. 5.
N
(67 MVV) TAPPING Melting practice for a sequentiai heat employing 100~/,
charges of DRI during EAFsteelmaking.
(51
3L
MW)
ONOFEAF
PREPARAT =~
* 140 800-159 120 ~ ENEReY
iN KWH
95' • TIME IN MINUTES
~_
30 1'F~,rvv
v
If't lO for practices C
and in EAF's and 2 respectively. A I
ee e
It is evident that,
as waspointed out, practice promotes A
20 - e e more oxidized baths and generally speaking higher
e '
10
specific electric energies (E.) than practice
Calthough a
high dispersion of this variable is clearly observed. Some
heats with low iron oxide contents in slag at the end of
o
o o,05 0,1 o, 15 melting-refining period reported high specific consump-
[vvt% C] tions of E, but heats with high iron oxide contents in
Fig. 6. Effect of graphite injection during steelmaking in EAF slag at the end of
sameperiod also showedlow E..
employing 100 o/o DRI charges. The features of these data indicate that there was not
50
v 70
vv v
40
v ~rvvvv ~ EAFe 60 --
1~r
Eq"ilib*i~*
Vvv
vvvv ,r v
50
e
~~80 'F
vv O 40
-
LLa)
~~.
v ,r a)
LL •1~C • Melting praetlae C
~_ v ~~.Q
e
~quillbrlum
20 ~30 - e ,,F~ e
'L Melting practiee B
e ~~
e e
10
20
- *e
e
1•*
10
o
0,01 o,08 o,05 o,07 o,09 Oo o,05 o, I o, 15
[wt'l.C] [wt'l.Cl
Fig. 7. Effect of melting practice A on slag oxidation during Fig. 9. Comparison of melting practices B and C during
1000/0 DRI charges in EAF. steelmaking in EAF4 employing charges with 1000/*
DRI.
50
V C I,•Itlng pnlotlet C 1.ooo
V~VV
:~ A
M,,It[ng prlctlo•
e v v EAFNo 2, p,acti*. A
40
V V
V1'r
e\~rr~l~:1~~1'
V'~FVl:F~~
Equtllbrlum
900
e
v
v
1)
e EAFNo I ,
p"'ti*' C
30 800 'v v e
~
~~
h
V++
V+ v
:::
~ 700 e
e
~v
11P'I'yy It
v
~~~.'
,e . vlivv
"
ee.'edbvevb
vv
v,*
~- e
20 e .e v
e v e v
e e 600 e.~r
v e .
e
10 500 e
.
400
o 10 15 20 30 35 2540 45 50
o o,05 o*1 0,1 5 (wi% FeO)
[wt'l.C]
Fig. lO. Relationship between energy consumption and slag
Fig. 8. Comparisonbetweenmelting practices Aand Cduring oxidation during steelmaking employing 1000/0 DRI
steelmaking in EAFI employing 100 '/* DRIcharges. charges,
a clear relation between bath oxidation and specific slag interface (C-s) and Reactions (6) and (7) at slag-gas
consumptions of E* and, although, graphite injection was (s-g) and carbon-gas (C-g) interfaces respectively. Figure
working very fine to control iron oxide in slag it wasnot 12 is a schematic representation of reaction sites during
doing well for controlling specific consumption of E.. injection of graphite and/or addition of coke during steel
This was also a symptomof an irregular slag foaming melting-refining processes in an EAF. It is inferred from
formation and this situation was verified by data be- this figure that CO formation is a very complex function
10nging to the samepractices in EAFI as shownin Fig. of several process variables such as size, type and mass
11 where the sameirregular behavior was observed. flowrate of carbonaceous material, flowrate of carrier
As far as variations on DRI quality and operating gas, carbon content in bath, slag chemistry, slag-metal
practices were not wide enough to explain those great area etc. Authors are actually working in a
interfacial
variations a process analysis approach was employedin mathematical model which takes into consideration all
order to understand foaming phenomena and in this way these variables. Nevertheless, in this paper only quali-
to be able to control in better way specific consumption tative aspects are considered.
of E* during DRI melting in EAF. On other hand, another condition for foaming of
the
slag should be fulfilled. This condition shall be called
5. FoamingPhenomena
in Slags here as sufficient and it is directly related to the trans-
port properties (which affect foam stability) of steel-
Driving force for slag foaming is a pneumatic energy
making slags at refining temperatures. In this sense,
provided by COgeneration during melting-refining in
Jiang and Fruehan8) conducted experiments on the foam-
EAF. Reactions responsibles of this COformation are, ing of bath smelting type slags and defined a foaming
in addition to Reaction (1), thb following:
index, Z
(measured in time units i.e. seconds), as a
C+ 02 CO
- 2 =
I ..... .... .
(4)
function of slag chemistry and mathematically expressed
as;
between gaseous oxygen and carbon in bath, (5) is a Using a cold model of slag foaming Ogawaet al.9) found
direct iron oxide reduction reaction by carbon in slag that a high viscosity and a low surface tension of slag
while expression (1) is the oxidation of carbon in bath are specific conditions for a stable foam. Kitamura et
by iron oxide in slag. All these reactions are COformers al.10) reported high foam stability of CaO-(Fe203+
giving stirring energy for mass transfer between metal MnO)-Si02 slags at silica saturation compositions and
slag, carbon, and gas phases and they can be considered at higher slag basicities foaminess diminished. Hara et
as a necessary condition for slag foaming. Some reactions al.11) reported that surface active
componentsin slags
are consumers of CO, one of them is a possible iron such as phosphates, borates and silicates form stable
oxide reduction on the surface of a CObubble and can foams. Thus as far as ~ in Eq, (8) mayincrease, a higher
be written as: stabilization of foam in a given slag maybe obtained.
(FeO)+C0=Fe+C02"""' """""(6) Unfortunately all experimental data reported in literature
are for simple systems and there is not a complete study
which can be controlled by an intermediate reaction given
by:
on foaming of complex steelmaking slags. However, it
is possible to estimate their foaming index employing
C02+C=2CO
..,...........,,............(7) experimental data reported in a very complete review
madeby Mills and Keene on transport properties of
Sitesof reactions can be located as follows; Reaction
complex steelmaking slags,12) According to Eq. (8)
(1) at the
slag-metal interface (s~m), Reaction (4) at the surface tension, density and viscosity are the properties
gas-metal interface (~~m), Reaction (5) at the carbon-
1.ooo o.
' ' PRACTIOE
A
' PRACTiCE
C
\ ~~CARBON
GASBUBBLES
PARTICLES
ORGRAPHITE
900 e v
CO
e
e vvvy
800 te
ee 1' ve
v (~
I~~ v
It,rv vy
v
It
v ~.(~ 7(~~
~';:~
v ~~)
> 700 e '8F v I~lliir vv v ~,~~7
~, e
e , v c~~ 6~~
' C~)
vy ~~ SLAG
600 IV
e e ee
Q,
-O-O-
c:~
~cc)
UJ 500 e
e
c:~_ 4
~ - -O
O_ - c~'
400
15
e
20
e
25 30
(wt'/.
35
Feo)
40 45 50 55
Fig, 12,
~ (~~
A schematic
~ ~ MOLTENSTEEL
(%SIO:+%p:05+%Al:Og)
1o 90
20 80 o.i5
ao 70 O.20
40 60 O.30
Homogeneous
Taa 50 so
50 50
hard reducing sl O.dO
60 Efteat of solid
40 O.50
particles
5uspendedin liquid slags
0.60
70 30
~
l. O.70
Bo 20
lu.
90 4b
rec'uel"gfoal'77eu:gr,sg,
ll
Heterageneous foamin 10
eas
stags easier to be reduced y
(%Ca0+%MgO
+%MnO) (%F.o)
10 20 ao 40 50 Go 70 80 90 50
(Wt 'l.) cao+Mgo F~O
Fig. 14. Areas of chemical compositions for complex steel- (Wt olo)
making slags which define foaminess and reducibility Fig. 15. Iron oxide activities in complex steelmaking slags
of iron oxide. calculated bya quasi-chemical model.
I~ 700 - 3.200 -
e
.~
3.ooo ~
I ~~~ .J'
~
-650 e
, e
~•:~
."F
O'
' ~ 2.800
e ee e .
o) ., •' No-foam~ng
ee .
~2.600 - SI8g fa8ming
S= 600
.
'1F
LiJ
2.400
550 - 2.200
1o 14 18 22 26 30 86 87 88 89 90 91 92
(wt% Feo) DRI metallization ('/.)
Fig. 16. Relationship between energy consumption and slag Fig. 18. Effects of DRI metallization and slag foaming
oxidation employing practice C
modified in EAF I .
practice on melting rate of DRI in EAFsteelmaking.
750
A
metallurgical practice for melting charges with
near
lOOo/* DRI pellets in EAFemploying slag foaming
700 techniques has been established and the concluslons
:r:
~~ 665 reached are as follows:
> 650 L:~~•;~i=1"
635 For a good slag foam formation there are neces-
(1)
600
sary and sufficient conditions. The firsts are related with
generation of COthrough
decarburization reactions in
uJ 550 different interfaces
during all the processing time and
the seconds are those corresponding to thermophysical
500
i992 A 1993 A i 994 c 1994 cm properties of complex slags. Generally speaking, high
Years of operation Iow densities
viscosities, and low surface tensions en-
Fig. 19. Comparisonof melting practices A, Cand Cmodified hance foam stability.
in regard to
energy consumption (data of 1994 are (2) At the time whencarbon in molten metal is low
month averaged).
the necessary condition should be accomplished making
a more intensive employment of graphite injection
together with solid particles of lime
or dolomite to
increase the apparent viscosity of slag.
O (3) Slag foaming practice helps to increase
con-
siderably the productivity of steelmaking shop allowing
O a
to melt charges with high DRI/scrap ratios.
E
(4) Slag foaming practice improves the thermal
efficiency of the process from 80
up to 90 o/, in the case
presented in this work owing to better heat transfer from
UJ
arc to molten metal.
1992 1993 1994
Years ot operation Aeknowledgments
Fig. 20. Electrode consumption employing practice (years A The authors give the thanks to Drs. J. Sittard, M.
1992l993) comparedwith monthly average in 1994 Mukherjee and Mr. Richard S. Armstead, CEO,
employing practice modified. C Executive Director and Director of Operations
respec-
tively of IMEXSA for their encouragement and
sup-
160 port to carry out this work. Twoof us (RDM and JAR)
(150)
(1 53)
wish to thank also to the institutions SNl, CoNaCyT
150 and COFAA for their support to the Process Metal-
140
lurgy Group at Instituto Polit6cnico National.
_
E_
C~ Nomenclature
S! 130
WJf
,:,
':L
: Weight ofcomponent'' ', in raw material "i"
j
F 120 "loj: Weight fraction of component '' ,, in raw
(1
1o) material
'' .,'
l
j
110
AHT: Enthalpy necessary to heat up all raw
~oo materials up to the operating temperature
1992 199e 1994
Years ot operation
AHENR
: Enthalpy for endothermic reactions
Fig. 21. Tap-to-tap time during years 1992-1993 employing
AHEXR
: Enthalpy for exothermic reatctions
practice A and in 1994 (monthly average) employing AHsEN
: Sensible heat ofraw materials heated in EAF
practice Cmodified. eT : Thermal efficiency (-)
E.: Electrical energy 2) K. Meyer and G. Post: Stahl Eisen, 93 (1973), 194.
Cj: Constant in material balance for component 3) H. Ottmar, B. H. Schenck and W. Dahl: Stahl Eisen, 97 (1977),
'' .,'
731.
J 4) E. Elsner. H. Knappand H. Voss: Stahl Eisen, 94 (1974), 1322.
E: Foamingindex 5) G. Post and D. Ameling: Iron Steelmaker, 2(1975), 43.
p: Slag viscosity 6) I. Barin: Thermochemical
Data of Pure Substances, Parts I and
p: Slag density II,
VCHVerlagsgeselschaft mbH,D-6940, Germany,(1989).
(T: Slag surface tension 7) M. Bock. G. A. Boyd, S. H. Karlson and M. Ross: Iron
Steelmaker, 63 (1994), 63.
Gravity constant 8) R. Jiang and R. J. Fruehan: Metall. Trans. B, 22B (1991), 481.
Nu:
Ko:
Nusselt number (- )
Kolmogoroff number( )
9) Y. Ogawa,D. Huin, H. Gayeand N. Tokumitsu: ISIJ Int., 33
(1993), 224.
Schmidt number( )
-
Sc :
- 1O) S. Kitamura, K. Ogahira. S. Tanaka and M. Doi: Tetsu-to-
REFERENCES 15) J. F. Elliott and R. J. O'Malley: Proc, of The Sixth Int. Iron Steel
Cong., Vol. l, ISIJ, Tokyo, (1990), 131.
1) M. Blander and A. D. Pelton: Geochim. Cosmochim.Acta, 51
(1987), 85.