Ferrous scrap preheating system. Phase 2, Final report

摘要

Utilization of electric arc steel making has allowed many smaller producers to compete with the large mills. An electric arc furnace (EAF) melts scrap metal to produce a variety of steel products. Using scrap as the metal source is less costly than refining from ores, but the metal is of a lower quality due to impurities in the scrap. Over the years, methods have been developed to improve EAF metal quality and reduce the cost of production. As a result, an increasing share of total steel production is shifting to EAFs. By recent estimates, EAF production is growing at a rate of about 10% per year, and currently accounts for nearly one half of all US steel production (US Department of Energy and Electric Power Research Institute Project 2787-2, 1987). The subject of this report is Scrap Preheating, a new method of preheating scrap metal before it is charged into an EAF. In scrap preheating, a portion of the energy is supplied in a separate vessel, causing the EAF to use less energy, which shortens the heating time. The general effect is that the arc furnace can produce more steel in a given time at a reduced cost per ton of molten metal.