Green Technologies for Higher Energy Efficiency in Electric Steelmaking

Apart from the metallic input materials, energy is the main cost driver in electric steelmaking operation today. The increasing energy-price trend indicates that even higher prices can be expected in the future. Next to the increasing energy costs, electric steelmakers take notice that international agreements and national laws increasingly call for a reduction of pollution and CO2 emissions. This trend asks for advanced solutions to meet the environmental regulations and energy-prices of today and those in the future. A comprehensive energy management is necessary for an energy efficient steel plant operation. Recent developments on the EAF technology focuses on optimized scrap charging, preheating technology, melting, slag-free tapping and continuous power on operation during charging, tapping and tap-hole refilling. The solution sets new benchmarks in electric steelmaking for lowering the specific energy consumption rate and related emissions to the environment. Considering the energy balance of an EAF, it becomes obvious that the lion's share of process energy losses is the hot offgas exiting the furnace. Hence, the application of efficient methods to recover this energy can make a major contribution toward improving the overall energy balance in electric steelmaking. The closer link between CCM and RM is a further trend at mini mills. Either hot charging or direct rolling leads to a high potential in energy savings. This presentation gives an overview of energy saving from scrap to final products with a visionary outlook on green technologies.