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ScienceDirect
Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 3636 – 3641

The 8th International Conference on Applied Energy – ICAE2016

Electric energy consumption and environmental impact in

unconventional EAF steelmaking scenarios
Ismael Matinoa*, Valentina Collaa, Stefano Baragiolab
a
Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna TeCIP Institute-ICT-COISP, Via Alamanni 13B, Ghezzano-San Giuliano Terme (PI) 56010, Italy
b
RIVA ACCIAIO S.p.A., Via Bergamo 1484, Caronno Pertusella (VA) 21042, Italy

Abstract

The electric steel production is an energy intensive process with a significant environmental impact that however
allows the reuse of scraps. Electric steelworks can increase their competitiveness and environmental sustainability
through an adequate management of resource and energy. The paper presents a work carried out within a project
funded by the European Union and related to the evaluation of electric energy consumption and environmental
impact of electric steelworks in un-conventional scenarios starting from a standard process route of an Italian
company. The exploitation of two modules of an ad-hoc developed general purpose monitoring tool highlights that
scrap quality strongly affects the monitored energy and environmental parameters. The developed simulations
pointed out that some scenarios allow reducing slag and improving the yield while slightly increasing the electric
energy consumption: in countries where the electricity price and the emissions related to the production of electric
energy are low, this can be a good compromise in order to improve the environmental sustainability of the sector.

©
©2017
2016TheTheAuthors. Published
Authors. by Elsevier
Published Ltd. This
by Elsevier is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Ltd.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of ICAE
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 8th International Conference on Applied Energy.

Keywords: Electric steelworks sustainability; Process modelling; Electric energy efficiency; Environmental Impact; Aspen Plus®.

1. Introduction

The electric steelmaking route exploits scrap as raw material for steel production by melting it in the
Electric Arc Furnace (EAF). This production is therefore perfectly in line with the concept of Circular
Economy, which nowadays is very popular in the international technical and scientific community, as
end-of-life steel products are fully recycled, being steel a material, which can be endlessly melted and

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-050-882513.

E-mail address: i.matino@sssup.it.

1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 8th International Conference on Applied Energy.
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.839
 Ismael Matino et al. / Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 3636 – 3641 3637

reused. However, electric steelworks are energy intensive industries, which exploit electric energy as main
energy supply, thus the energy costs affect the final conversion cost. Moreover, electric steel production
has a not negligible environmental impact related to wastes, water consumption, direct (e.g. dusts) and
indirect (e.g. CO2) atmospheric emissions. Therefore electric steelworks are focusing their efforts to
improve energy efficiency through optimal exploitation of the cheapest energy portion (e.g. chemical
energy) while jointly minimizing wastes and emissions with benefits for the environmental sustainability.
Different kind of research works were carried out to both find the factors that mostly affect the energy
efficiency and investigate new ways for its improvement. Several possibilities for energy recovery and
utilization in an integrated way are discussed and economically assessed in [1]. Furthermore, Amado et al.
used a particular data-mining algorithm in order to obtain a ranking list of the most influencing variables
on energy consumption in the EAF melting process [2]. In [3] the development and the use of production
planning tool composed by three modules, among which a genetic algorithm, was exploited to optimize
the production conditions. The latest trends in EAF optimization are analysed in [4], where the effect of
chemical energy input intensity is pointed out.
Other research works are focused on a particular innovative technology or modification of the standard
operating practice. An exemplar work is provided by Porzio et al., who exploited process simulation to
study the possibility of improving the energy savings, emissions reduction and Zinc recovery in EAF
melting through simultaneous preheating of the scrap and removal of coating from its surface before the
melting phase [5]. The preheating of the scrap is also one of the topics discussed by Partyka et al. in [6],
where the importance of the optimization of the melting process as a function of the charge material mix
is emphasized. On the other hand, process modelling and simulation are also used in [7], where further
developments of an EAF model useful to optimize the process control strategies are presented.
Process simulation is also used in the present work, which was developed during the RFCS project
entitled “Environmental Impact Evaluation and Effective Management of Resources” (EIRES). A highly
flexible EAF steelworks model has been developed through Aspen Plus ® and tuned with plant data, which
is exploited here to evaluate electric energy consumption and environmental impact in normal and un-
conventional scenarios. In particular, the electric energy consumptions associated to the most common
steel families from the standard production route of the Riva plant (Italy) are presented. Moreover, the
results of some of the scenario analyses are discussed, which were carried out on the production of the
considered steel families in un-conventional EAF operating conditions to the aim of assessing the electric
energy consumption by considering also the environmental aspects. To this aim, a series of Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs) is evaluated through a specific KPI evaluation tool. Although the main
purpose of the work is to study the effect of process configurations to the electric energy consumption and
to the plant sustainability, the novelty of the work is related to the developed EAF steelmaking plant
model, which allows the assessment of a wide range of scenarios as a sort of virtual turnkey plant, by
monitoring important parameters such as energy, steel composition, slag production and CO 2 emissions.
Process configurations were assessed without neglecting quality standards that ensure competitiveness:
energy consumption have to be minimized while preserving or even improving the product quality.
The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 briefly describes the exploited process model and the tool
used to monitor the main energy and environmental parameters during the scenario analyses; Section 3
presents the evaluation of the behavior of the process where some modifications to the standard operating
practice are included. Finally, Section 4 provides some concluding remarks and hints for future work.

2. Brief overview of process model and KPI tool

In the present work, two modules of the general-purpose monitoring tool that was developed during the
EIRES project were exploited: a model of EAF-based steel production route and a KPI evaluation tool.
3638 Ismael Matino et al. / Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 3636 – 3641

The first one was developed through Aspen Plus V.8.6 ® adopting a well-established approach, which is
described in details in [8]. Three sub-models related to the production route, to the gas network and to the
water treatments compose the “Virtual electric steelworks” but only the first two were exploited in the
present work. The production process model, which development was described in [9], allows simulating
each steps (EAF, Ladle Furnace LF, Vacuum Degassing VD, Continuous Casting CC) and phenomena
(e.g. melting, oxidations, energy transfer) of the EAF steel production and monitoring many relevant
variables, such as steel composition, temperature, emissions, energy consumption and recovery. The
model validation for different steel families (i.e. groups of similar steel grades), allows assessing and
comparing the contributions of each steel family to the overall energy consumption and environmental
impact. Furthermore, it allows assessing the effect of possible modification of the production cycle (e.g.
the scrap mix), considering some modifications of the normal industrial practices or possibility of process
integration solutions (e.g. the internal reuse of slag). The gas network models allows following the fumes
route during their treatments (including energy recovering systems) and computing the amount and
composition of dusts, the air emissions and the recovered energy. The models are transferable to other
steelworks configurations and are quite simple to use thanks to its connection with MS Excel® through the
Aspen Simulation Workbook®. Thus, such simulation tool is useful in preliminary analyses for both
development of new management and control strategies and more substantial plant modifications,
revamping and retrofit actions aimed at improving sustainability of the production cycle.
The KPI evaluation tool, which was described in [10], allows the calculation and the visualization of
30 selected KPIs [11] in order to monitor in an easy way the most important parameters related to the
energy and environmental impact of a steelworks (e.g. energy efficiency, CO 2 and other emissions,
material efficiency, by-products and waste production and water usage). Moreover it allows the
normalization and then the aggregation of all the KPIs into a unique indicator in order to give a fast
overview of the overall environmental and sustainability behavior of the considered plant. The KPI tool is
thus a powerful tool in order to support plant managers and technicians in their analyses.

3. Scenario analyses

Scenario analyses were carried out in order to evaluate potentials for reduction of the electric energy
consumption in the Riva steel production route, which do not affect the steel quality and improve the
environmental impact. To this aim, the following KPIs were exploited: KPI 2 (electrical energy
consumption), KPI5 (direct specific CO2 emission), KPI14 (metallic yield), KPI15 (EAF slag), KPI18 (LF
slag), KPI21 (total output slag). In particular, KPI2 represents the direct specific power consumption
(GJ/tsolidsteel) and it is computed as the ratio between the electric energy consumed in the EAF and in the
secondary metallurgy (EEEAF+SM in GJ) and the amount of produced solid steel (SS in t); it is expressed as
follow by the equation (1):
EE EAF+SM
KPI2 = (1)
SS
Three steel families (SF) [8] were considered in the analysis, as they represent the most produced steel
grades and include steel produced with or without the use of VD; Table 1 depicts the main chemical
components of the considered steel families. A comparison between the electric energy consumption in
EAF and LF stages among the considered steel families highlights that such consumption is linked to the
produced steel and to the related production route. Indeed if SF #8 requires a specific electric energy
consumption about 2% higher than SF #5 only because they have a different “recipe”, the SF #11, whose
route includes the VD stage, requires a specific electric energy about 10% higher than SF #5, as a bigger
heat drop must be addressed during the route.
 Ismael Matino et al. / Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 3636 – 3641 3639

Table 1. Composition (wt %) and VD use for the considered steel families

Steel Family C S Mn Cr Ni B VD
min max min max min max min max min max min max
5 0.12 0.25 0 0.5 0.9 1.6 0 0.25 0 0.25 0 0.0008 NO
8 0.7 0.9 0 0.5 0 1 0 0.25 0 0.25 0 0.0008 NO
11 0 0.8 0 1.5 0 1.6 0 1.5 0 1.5 0.001 0.009 YES

Then, considering that normal route provides a first stage of Fe-alloy addition in the ladle during EAF
tapping, the evaluation of the removal of this stage and the addition of Fe-alloys only at LF station was
carried out: this case study was identified as CS1. On the other hand and only for the steel SF #5, that is
the most intensively produced among the three considered families, an evaluation of the change of the
initial “scrap recipe” has been performed by fixing the total amount of input scrap. In this way, it was
possible to evaluate how the scrap type affects the electric energy consumption in EAF and LF, the steel
quality and the CO2 and slag production. The considered scrap are sheet metals (high quality), proler
(normal quality) and others low qualities scraps and the simulated case studies are depicted in Table 2.

Table 2. Scrap weight percentage (wt %) for the steel family #5 in the different analyzed case studies

CSstandard CS2 CS3 CS4 CS5 CS6

Proler 53 25 22 25 53 22
Sheet Metals 25 53 25 22 22 53
Other scraps 22 22 53 53 25 25

The obtained results are illustrated in the radar diagrams reported in Figure 1 as KPI values normalized
with respect to the value obtained in the standard route for the related steel family. In each case studies,
the composition of desired steel quality was monitored: the desired composition was achieved with only
little negligible change in Fe-alloy content in the produced steel. On the other hand, significant variations
were obtained for energy and environmental parameters in some of the tested scenarios. In CS1, the
removal of Fe-alloy addition in the ladle during EAF tapping leads to a more or less marked reduction of
LF slag production (KPI18) for each of the tested steel family, such as depicted in Figures 1a, 1c and 1d;
this is due to the minimization of Fe-alloy oxidation, as they have less time and oxygen to react. This fact
could allow a reduction of Fe-alloy addition without affecting the steel quality. However, this change in
the production route leads also to an increase of electric energy consumption per ton of steel (around 1-
2%): if the oxidation is reduced also the related developed chemical energy is reduced, which must be
compensated by a higher electric energy supply during LF stage in order to keep the desired temperature
value. A negligible reduction of CO2 emission is achieved. Figure 1b depicts the effects of the case studies
related to the change of the “scrap recipe” for the production of SF #5. It is evident that the worst
scenarios are, as expected, the CS3 and CS4 in which the major scrap fraction is composed of low quality
scrap. The low quality scrap leads to a significant increase of required electric energy (KPI2) of about
14%, due to the reduction of available chemical energy, of the total produced slag (KPI21) of about 35%
and of the emitted CO2 (KPI5) of 3-4% with a consequent reduction of metallic yield (KPI14) of about 3%.
A slight improvement of the metallic yield (KPI14) and of the steel quality were obtained with a more
intensive use of high and medium quality scraps, such as in the CS2 with a consequent reduction of
produced slag (KPI15, KPI18, KPI21). However, in this case there is also a slight increase in electric energy
consumption and CO2 production. The last two scenarios (CS5 and CS6) show intermediate results.
3640 Ismael Matino et al. / Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 3636 – 3641

Fig. 1. Results of the case studies: (a) case study 1 for the steel family #5; (b) case studies 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 for the steel family 5; (c) case
study 1 for the steel family #8; (d) case study 1 for the steel family #11

4. Conclusion

Scenario analyses using a flexible simulation model and monitoring tool of the electric steelmaking
route are presented in the paper in order to evaluate the effect of process modifications to the electric
energy and to some environmental and process parameters of the EAF-based steelmaking route.
The quality of the scrap has a strong influence on the energy and environmental impact and yield of the
process; the use of high quantity of low quality scrap strongly increase the electric energy consumption as
well as the CO2 emissions and the slag production. On the other hand, a process modification that allows
the enhancement of the production yield and the reduction of slag, leads to the increase of electric energy
consumption. Thus this solution is economically viable in countries were the energy cost is low enough
that the increased costs related to electric energy can be compensated by the reduction of costs related to
slag management.
The potentiality of the integrated simulation tool developed in the EIRES project has been proved and
further analyses are ongoing in order to identify the best solutions, which allow keeping steel quality
while reducing energy consumptions and environmental impact for the considered Italian steelworks.
However, the integrated simulation and monitoring tool is fully generic: it has been designed to be
customized and to support scenario analyses and decision making for any electric steelworks.

Acknowledgements

The work described in the present paper was developed within the project entitled “EIRES –
Environmental Impact Evaluation and Effective Management of Resources in the EAF Steelmaking”
 Ismael Matino et al. / Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 3636 – 3641 3641

(Contract No. RFSR-CT- 2013-00030), and received funding from the Research Fund for Coal and Steel
of the European Union, which is gratefully acknowledged. The sole responsibility of the issues treated in
the present paper lies with the authors; the Union is not responsible for any use that may be made of the
information contained therein.

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Biography
Ismael Matino has a M. Eng. in Chemical Engineering. He is a PhD student in “Emerging
Digital Technologies” and an Assistant Researcher of ICT-COISP Center of Scuola Superiore
Sant’Anna working in the modelling, simulation and optimization of industrial processes.