Simulation of energy dynamics of electric furnace steelmaking using DRI

Abstract

The electric arc furnace steelmaking ( EFS) process comprising an energy intensive multimetallic smelting reactor essentially meets its metallics and energy requirement with scrap and electrical energy respectively. Scrap, which leads to a substantial increase in tramp elements in steel has now been augmented by alternate metallics: hot briquetted iron, pig iron, hot metal and directly reduced iron ( DRI). The melting characteristics of these alternate metallics are quite different from the melting of scrap owing to their shape, specific heat and chemical compositions. Of these metallics, the metallurgical properties of DRI are far more known and predictable. The EFS process evolution has increasingly placed emphasis on the use of DRI in its input charge mix. The present paper attempts to simulate some of the essential features of energy dynamics involving metallurgical aspects of DRI smelting in EFS. It examines the influence of DRI usage as an alternate iron bearing metallic on the energy consumption of EFS. The results have been validated with actual plant data of one of the electric arc furnaces of Usha Martin Industries Ltd, operating a steel plant in Jamshedpur in eastern India. The process data nearly validate the model predictions and aid the understanding of the dependence of the energy dynamics on various metallics characteristics in electric furnace steelmaking.