The Behavior of Direct Reduced Iron in the Electric Arc Furnace Hotspot

Andreas Pfeiffer; Daniel Ernst; Heng Zheng; Gerald Wimmer; Johannes Schenk

doi:10.3390/met13050978

The Behavior of Direct Reduced Iron in the Electric Arc Furnace Hotspot

Andreas Pfeiffer, Daniel Ernst, Heng Zheng, Gerald Wimmer, Johannes Schenk

Chair of Ferrous Metallurgy (220)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review

Abstract

Hydrogen-based direct reduction is a promising technology for CO2 lean steelmaking. The electric arc furnace is the most relevant aggregate for processing direct reduced iron (DRI). As DRI is usually added into the arc, the behavior in this area is of great interest. A laboratory-scale hydrogen plasma smelting reduction (HPSR) reactor was used to analyze that under inert conditions. Four cases were compared: carbon-free and carbon-containing DRI from DR-grade pellets as well as fines from a fluidized bed reactor were melted batch-wise. A slag layer’s influence was investigated using DRI from the BF-grade pellets and the continuous addition of slag-forming oxides. While carbon-free materials show a porous structure with gangue entrapments, the carburized DRI forms a dense regulus with the oxides collected on top. The test with slag-forming oxides demonstrates the mixing effect of the arc’s electromagnetic forces. The cross-section shows a steel melt framed by a slag layer. These experiments match the past work in that carburized DRI is preferable, and material feed to the hotspot is critical for the EAF operation.

Original language	English
Article number	978
Number of pages	12
Journal	Metals
Volume	13.2023
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/met13050978
Publication status	Published - 18 May 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was funded by K1-MET GmbH, metallurgical competence center (funding number FFG No. 869295). The research program of the K1-MET competence center is supported by COMET (Competence Center for Excellent Technologies), the Austrian program for competence centers. COMET is funded by the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation, and Technology, the Federal Ministry for Labour and Economy, the provinces of Upper Austria, Tyrol, and Styria, and the Styrian Business Promotion Agency (SFG). In addition, this research work was partially financed by the industrial partners Primetals Technologies Austria GmbH, voestalpine Stahl GmbH, voestalpine Stahl Donawitz GmbH and thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG, and the scientific partner Montanuniversität Leoben.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

Keywords

direct reduced iron
electric arc furnace
hydrogen DRI
slag formation
sponge iron

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10.3390/met13050978

Cite this

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abstract = "Hydrogen-based direct reduction is a promising technology for CO2 lean steelmaking. The electric arc furnace is the most relevant aggregate for processing direct reduced iron (DRI). As DRI is usually added into the arc, the behavior in this area is of great interest. A laboratory-scale hydrogen plasma smelting reduction (HPSR) reactor was used to analyze that under inert conditions. Four cases were compared: carbon-free and carbon-containing DRI from DR-grade pellets as well as fines from a fluidized bed reactor were melted batch-wise. A slag layer{\textquoteright}s influence was investigated using DRI from the BF-grade pellets and the continuous addition of slag-forming oxides. While carbon-free materials show a porous structure with gangue entrapments, the carburized DRI forms a dense regulus with the oxides collected on top. The test with slag-forming oxides demonstrates the mixing effect of the arc{\textquoteright}s electromagnetic forces. The cross-section shows a steel melt framed by a slag layer. These experiments match the past work in that carburized DRI is preferable, and material feed to the hotspot is critical for the EAF operation.",

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author = "Andreas Pfeiffer and Daniel Ernst and Heng Zheng and Gerald Wimmer and Johannes Schenk",

note = "Funding Information: This research was funded by K1-MET GmbH, metallurgical competence center (funding number FFG No. 869295). The research program of the K1-MET competence center is supported by COMET (Competence Center for Excellent Technologies), the Austrian program for competence centers. COMET is funded by the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation, and Technology, the Federal Ministry for Labour and Economy, the provinces of Upper Austria, Tyrol, and Styria, and the Styrian Business Promotion Agency (SFG). In addition, this research work was partially financed by the industrial partners Primetals Technologies Austria GmbH, voestalpine Stahl GmbH, voestalpine Stahl Donawitz GmbH and thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG, and the scientific partner Montanuniversit{\"a}t Leoben. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 by the authors.",

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N2 - Hydrogen-based direct reduction is a promising technology for CO2 lean steelmaking. The electric arc furnace is the most relevant aggregate for processing direct reduced iron (DRI). As DRI is usually added into the arc, the behavior in this area is of great interest. A laboratory-scale hydrogen plasma smelting reduction (HPSR) reactor was used to analyze that under inert conditions. Four cases were compared: carbon-free and carbon-containing DRI from DR-grade pellets as well as fines from a fluidized bed reactor were melted batch-wise. A slag layer’s influence was investigated using DRI from the BF-grade pellets and the continuous addition of slag-forming oxides. While carbon-free materials show a porous structure with gangue entrapments, the carburized DRI forms a dense regulus with the oxides collected on top. The test with slag-forming oxides demonstrates the mixing effect of the arc’s electromagnetic forces. The cross-section shows a steel melt framed by a slag layer. These experiments match the past work in that carburized DRI is preferable, and material feed to the hotspot is critical for the EAF operation.

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The Behavior of Direct Reduced Iron in the Electric Arc Furnace Hotspot

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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