Power Industry Webinar Production & Promotion

Electric Arc Furnaces: More Taps, Less Energy

Among high energy consuming industries, the iron and steel manufacturing sector accounts for a substantial portion of energy demand. The sector is currently responsible for about 8% of global final energy demand [IEA] and, as this industrial sector responds to increasing social and economic welfare needs, global energy demand for steel production technologies will significantly increase in the coming decades.

This is most notable with the increasing utilization of electric-arc (EAF) and basic oxygen furnaces (BOF). In 2022, estimates of the share of energy costs ranged from 10-18% of production costs for BOF steel and 9-16% for EAF steel. [SteelOrbis 2023]. This presents the opportunity to increase energy efficiency and productivity with continuing efforts to optimize the melt process with improving control of furnace parameters notably oxygen lance activation, foaming coal injection, and gas burners. An indispensable prerequisite for engaging these optimization steps is the rapid measurement and analysis of the furnace off-gas, in particular the CO2/CO ratio which correlates to energy consumption.

In this informative webinar, Hans Georg Conrads, CEO of PROMECON, will present routes to measuring the off-gas velocity and composition of the EAF via the McON IR system.

Specific topics will include:

  • How accurate measurement of EAF or BOF gas flows and constituents enable closing of melting process mass and energy balances
  • Data capture and process optimization
  • EAF maintenance improvements
  • Case studies where implementation of the McON IR system on a 100-ton EAF resulted in reduction to tap-to-tap time and energy savings of 10-15 kWh/ton