Most high productivity electric arc furnace (EAF) melt shops employ significant amounts of chemical energy in the melting process. Goodfellow's EFSOP technology uses continuous offgas analysis plus process monitoring to optimise the use of chemical energy in the EAF. Benefits include savings in electrical energy, gas, oxygen and carbon, which result in significant reductions in conversion costs and increased productivity. Recent results from the installation of KT injectors and EFSOP at Tamsa are presented, together with operational results from other recent North American plants. Finally, an innovative development programme based on yield improvements in EAF steelmaking via improved process modelling and control methods is described.Global steelmakers face many challenges in reducing energy intensity and decreasing conversion costs for the EAF steelmaking process. The trend for high productivity meltshops is to increase the amount of chemical energy (oxygen, carbon, natural gas) being used in the melting process. Several years ago, Techint Goodfellow Technologies (formerly Stantec) introduced the EFSOP system, which is designed to improve chemical energy efficiency, lower conversion costs, and improve safety through process control based on continuous analysis of EAF offgas chemistry.The EFSOP technology consists of the following components: N a water-cooled sample probe N the gas analysis system N the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system N DECSIM, a proprietary EAF process model N real time, online EAF process control methods to control post-combustion. Figure 1 indicates how this technology works. The furnace offgases are sampled using a patented water-cooled probe, developed by Techint Goodfellow Technologies Inc. (TGTI), that extends into the fume system duct at the furnace exhaust. The gases are transported in a sample line to the analyser system where dust and moisture are removed. The analysis results are sent to the SCADA computer located in the control room, which processes the offgas data and other operating data to generate set points that are sent via the plant's PLC network to the burners to control postcombustion. This process occurs continuously in real time.Not shown in Figure 1 is the DECSIM program, developed by TGTI, which models the EAF process on the basis of the offgas data. The offgas analysis and the process model are used to provide insight into the furnace operation and are critical for process optimisation. Specifically, they are used to:N develop typical furnace offgas profiles that can be used to identify periods in which there are high concentrations of CO and H 2
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