Role of Ferrous Raw Materials in the Energy Efficiency of Integrated Steelmaking

摘要

The role of ferrous raw materials and iron ore agglomeration in energy consumption of integrated steelmaking has been evaluated using a system-wide model. Four steelplant cases were defined: typical European steelplant with sinterplant; Nordic steelplant with sinterplant; European steelplant with sinter:pellet ratio of 50%, and Nordic steelplant charging pellets and a small amount of briquettes. Energy consumption in the mining system were estimated from published statistics at 150 MJ/t for lump ore and sinter fines, 650 MJ/t for pellets made from magnetite and 1050 MJ/t for pellets made from hematite. An integrated steelplant model including all major unit operations was used to calculate overall system energy consumption from iron ore mining to hot rolled coil. Adjustments were made accounting for energy benefit of ground granulated blast furnace slag in cement production, energy required for cement production required for briquetting, and excess BF and BOF gas producing electricity in a 32% efficient power plant. The system-wide net adjusted energy in the first three steeplant cases showed marginal improvement with use of high grade sinter fines and decrease of pellet/sinter ratio to 50% compared to typical European case. Nordic steelplant charging pellets and briquettes had a reduction in system-wide energy of 5% to 8% for charging pellets from hematite or magnetite respectively compared to the typical European steelplant charging sinter and pellets made from hematite ore. Replacement of sinter with pellets was mainly responsible for the improvement with smaller contributions from magnetite ore in pelletizing.