Preface to the Special Issue on 'Recent Progress in Modeling, Data-processing and Control of Ironmaking Process'

摘要

Recently, due to fear of the global warming, and the stable and high productivity derived from a strong demand of the steel market, the requirements on the ironmaking process have shown a remarkable change. For example, looking back over the last decades in the steel industry, we have focused on the increase in steel production and utilization of various resources to decrease the steel production cost. Today, however, low reducing agent operation is being actively pursued due to the global warming issue. Large blast furnaces with inner volumes exceeding 5 000 m~3 are constructed in some countries such as China and Japan, and accurate and reliable control of their operation is required to attain the above target.