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With the Intelligent Arc Furnace™ (IAF®) controller, This paper will describe the work presently underway in
Neural Applications Corporation (NEURAL®) has both of these areas.
already applied neural-network technology to optimize
the electrical input for an EAF at more than 30
installations worldwide. The natural extension of this 2. FURNACE OPTIMIZATION
technology is development of an intelligent system for
optimization and coordination of all major energy 2.1 North Star Steel – Minnesota
sources. Prototype development is currently underway at
North Star Steel - Minnesota (NSS) for an intelligent North Star Steel has partnered with NEURAL in the
system that can automatically and adaptively optimize development of the furnace optimization system. The
each of the major energy inputs (arc, Oxygen, gas, prototype is being developed on the DC EAF at NSS-MN.
Carbon). Following is a brief overview of the NSS-MN meltshop.
As the cost of raw materials is often the largest cost in North Star Steel Minnesota produces a wide variety of
steelmaking, optimization of the charge material mix to steel grades comprising about 25% rebar, 20% structural,
obtain the required specification while minimizing 20% merchant and 35% special bar qualities. The melt
material cost and melting cost is also important. shop is equipped with an 86 metric ton (95 short ton)
Development of NEURAL’s ScrapMaster system is also Voest-Alpine DC-EAF, a ladle furnace and a 4-strand
presented. continuous caster.
• LoadMaster
3. SCRAP OPTIMIZATION Recipe Tracking — Transmits charge design
recipes to the crane operator and records the
Handling scrap is one of the most important functions of actual materials and quantities used.
an electric arc furnace meltshop. Using the wrong grades
of scrap will result in higher raw material costs and • ChemMaster
difficulty in meeting product chemistries. To help convert Intelligent Scrap Composition Analysis —
scrap from a problem into a profit center, NEURAL has Intelligently analyzes the results from the
developed the ScrapMaster. furnace melt-in to identify the actual properties
of the scrap materials used.
StockMaster LoadMaster
3.2 ChemMaster
REFERENCES
Scrap Melt-in
Furnace
Analyzer Results 1 H.D. Goodfellow: "Future trends in design of EAF
fume systems,” 5th European electric steel congress
Proceedings, 1995, p610-616.
By using pattern recognition and cross-correlation
techniques, the ChemMaster is able to identify material 2 E.J. Evenson, H.D. Goodfellow and J. Guerard:
that may potentially be out of specification more quickly "Energy optimization and continuous fume analysis
than has been previously possible. To accomplish this, the at CO-STEEL LASCO – The expert furnace system
ScrapMaster maintains a database of the results of the optimization process (EFSOP),” Electric Furnace
melt-in of each heat. This data can be received Conference Proceedings, vol. 55(1997), Iron and
automatically from the NEURAL IAF, the mill’s Level 2 Steel Society, p435-454.
system, or it can be manually entered.
3 N.G. Kournetas, A. McLean, I. Sommerville, M.
The NEURAL ChemMaster can automatically correct the Thomson, J. Guerard: "Effects of post combustion,
stored chemistry information based upon the results of validated by steel mill demonstration,” Electric
previous heats that have used the same materials. This Furnace Conference Proceedings, vol. 55(1997), Iron
allows for the more accurate design of charges, and Steel Society, p373-380.
particularly in the area of residual control.
4 G. Daughtridge, P. Mathur: "Recent developments in
Any major changes made in the chemistry information for post-combustion technology at Nucor Plymouth,”
a lot of scrap are reported. A major change is defined as Electric Furnace Conference Proceedings, vol.
more than ten percent of the concentration of the element 52(1994), Iron and Steel Society, p135-138.
in the material. Scrap materials that cause significant
variations in the melting energy requirements will also be 5 B. Sarma, P.C. Mathur, R.J. Selines: "Heat transfer
reported. rates and mechanisms in EAF post-combustion,”
Electric Furnace Conference Proceedings, vol.
54(1996), p519-537.
4. SUMMARY
6 D. Koncsics, P. Mathur, D. Engle: "Results of
Two major research efforts aimed at optimizing EAF oxygen injection in the EAF with Praxair Coherent
steelmaking have been presented. A furnace optimization Jet Injectors – a novel technology,” Electric Furnace
system that will coordinate and control all major energy Conference Proceedings, vol. 55(1997), Iron and
sources for an EAF is presently under development at Steel Society, p305-314.
North Star Steel –Minnesota. A scrap optimization system
has extensions beyond the standard Linear Programming 7 Nicolas Perrin, Michel Devaux, Karl-Heiz Klein,
solution to scrap optimization including (1) the ability to Jan-Erwin Schindler: "Industrial use of ALARC-
account for variability in scrap properties, and (2) the PCTM post-combustion technology worldwide,” 5th
ability to provide on-line updates of scrap-property European electric steel congress Proceedings, 1995,
estimates based on previous melt-in chemistry p99-109.
measurements.
8 Frank Slootman, Marc Buffenoir: "Effect of post-
12 A.C. Deneys, K.D. Peaslee: "Post combustion in the On the other hand Mathur and others [4-5] at PraxairTM
EAF – A steady state simulation model,” Electric conducted post-combustion experiments both through
Furnace Conference Proceedings, vol. 55(1997), Iron sidewall burners and through lance. In the investigation
and Steel Society, p417-428. with burners, the oxygen ratio was enriched after the
normal cycle. The results did not show expected benefits
13 Jeremy A.T. Jones, James F. Oliver: "A review of and was abandoned. The second trials were with a
post-combustion in the EAF, a theoretical and consumable hand held post-combustion oxygen lance
technical evaluation,” 5th European electric steel inserted through the slag door and used in conjunction
congress Proceedings, 1995, p83-97. with normal manipulated lance through a "Piggy-back"
mounting. The PC lance was directed into the slag close
14 S.A. Matson, W.F. Ramirez : "The dynamic to the steel bath. Off-gas analysis was through a "Severe
modeling of an electric arc furnace,” Electric Furnace Service Sampling System.” They have characterized this
Conference Proceedings, vol. 55(1997), Iron and approach wherein post-combustion oxygen is introduced
Steel Society, p675-688. in the lower part of the furnace to be of 'foamy slag post-
combustion' type as opposed to the other method 'free
15 C. Hayman, S. Agarwal, L. Heyd, I. Gordon, S. space post-combustion' (also referred to as 'free board'
Granstorm: "A dynamic model for the optimization approach) in which oxygen is introduced in the upper part
of the electric steelmaking process,” Electric Furnace of the furnace. Certain heat transfer analysis was
Conference Proceedings, vol. 55(1997), Iron and conducted assuming a one-gas, two-sink radiation model,
Steel Society, p409-416. incorporating radiative heat transfer to determine the heat
transfer efficiency between the foamy and the free-board
16 K.E. Sewald: "Fourth hole energy/scrap preheat approaches during the scrap melting and the flat-bath
thermal model,” Electric Furnace Conference conditions. Further, the heat transfer between slag and
Proceedings, vol. 44(1985), Iron and Steel Society, metal was analyzed assuming circulating metal droplets.
p243-250. In their analysis, free-board approach contributes
significantly during the scrap-melting with reduced effect
APPENDIX A during flat-bath conditions. Though it is reasoned that
Review of related research in Post-Combustion some of the PC oxygen may be leaving the furnace
unreacted in free space method, no such experimental data
Goodfellow [1-2] has developed an expert system for is reported in the literature. The two methods are
modeling post-combustion (PC) using off-gas probe data. projected to bring in post-combustion efficiency at 28% in
A proprietary Direct Evacuation Simulation model case of free-board while with foamy-slag it is 70%, the
evaluates the furnace exhaust gas composition, heat load difference being attributed to the degree of contribution
and flow rates on a minute by minute basis based on from the radiative and convective heat transfers. As an
thermochemical mass and energy balance. Energy sources advancement, perhaps incorporating a balance of the two