Blast Furnace Ironmaking: Analysis, Control, and Optimization uses a fundamental first principles approach to prepare a blast furnace mass and energy balance in ExcelTM. Robust descriptions of the main equipment and systems, process technologies, and best practices used in a modern blast furnace plant are detailed. Optimization tools are provided to help the reader find the best blast furnace fuel mix and related costs, maximize output, or evaluate other operational strategies using the ExcelTM model that the reader will develop. The first principles blast furnace ExcelTM model allows for more comprehensive process assessments than the 'rules of thumb' currently used by the industry. This book is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate science and engineering students in the fields of chemical, mechanical, metallurgical and materials engineering. Additionally, steel company engineers, process technologists, and management will find this book useful with its fundamental approach, best practices description, and perspective on the future. - Provides sample problems, answers and assignments for each chapter - Explores how to optimize the blast furnace operation while maintaining required temperatures and gas flowrates - Describes all major blast furnace equipment and best practices - Features blast furnace operating data from five continents

Modern Blast Furnace Ironmaking – An Introduction (Fourth Edition, 2020) describes the principles of the blast furnace process. As a starting point, the blast furnace is seen as a simple iron ore melter, while gradually the physical, chemical and metallurgical background of the blast furnace process is clarified. The book focuses on the control of the process with respect to thermal control, gas flow control and casthouse operation. In this book, all essential process details are described and a special focus is on cost optimization by low coke rates and on management of the process in case of disturbances and upsets. The optimization of the blast furnace is not only based on “best practice transfer”, but also requires conceptual understanding why a measure works in some cases and not in other cases. In other words, operational improvement is not only based on know–how, but as well on know–why. This publication can be used as an introductory text for students of metallurgy as well as for blast furnace operators and management.

Steel is a critical material in our societies and will remain an important one for a long time into the future. In the last two decades, the world steel industry has gone through drastic changes and this is predicted to continue in the future. The Asian countries (e.g. China, India) have been dominant in the production of steel creating global over-capacity, while the steel industry in the developed countries have made tremendous efforts to reinforce its global leadership in process technology and product development, and remain sustainable and competitive. The global steel industry is also facing various grand challenges in strict environmental regulation, new energy and materials sources, and ever-increasing customer requirements for high quality steel products, which has been addressed accordingly by the global iron and steel community. This Special Issue, “Ironmaking and Steelmaking”, released by the journal Metals, published 33 high quality articles from the international iron and steel community, covering the state-of-the-art of the ironmaking and steelmaking processes. This includes fundamental understanding, experimental investigation, pilot plant trials, industrial applications and big data utilization in the improvement and optimization of existing processes, and research and development in transformative technologies. It is hoped that the creation of this special issue as a scientific platform will help drive the iron and steel community to build a sustainable steel industry.

This book describes improvements in the iron and steel making process in the past few decades. It also presents new and improved solutions to producing high quality products with low greenhouse emissions. In addition, it examines legislative regulations regarding greenhouse emissions all around the world and how to control these dangerous emissions in iron and steel making plants.

This authoritative account covers the entire spectrum from iron ore to finished steel. It begins by tracing the history of iron and steel production, right from the earlier days to today’s world of oxygen steelmaking, electric steelmaking, secondary steelmaking and continuous casting. The physicochemical fundamental concepts of chemical equilibrium, activity-composition relationships, and structure-properties of molten metals are introduced before going into details of transport phenomena, i.e. kinetics, mixing and mass transfer in ironmaking and steelmaking pro-cesses. Particular emphasis is laid on the understanding of the fundamental principles of the processes and their application to the optimisation of actual processes. Modern developments in blast furnaces, including modelling and process control are discussed along with an introduction to the alternative methods of ironmaking. In the area of steelmaking, BOF plant practice including pre-treatment of hot metal, metallurgical features of oxygen steelmaking processes, and their control form part of the book. It also covers basic open hearth, electric arc furnace and stainless steelmaking, before discussing the area of casting of liquid steel—ingot casting, continuous casting and near net shape casting. The book concludes with a chapter on the status of the ironmaking and steelmaking in India. In line with the application of theoretical principles, several worked-out examples dealing with fundamental principles as applied to actual plant situations are presented. The book is primarily intended for undergraduate and postgraduate students of metallurgical engineering. It would also be immensely useful to researchers in the area of iron and steel.

This book describes the blast furnace process for operators. As a starting point, the blast furnace is seen as a simple iron ore melter, while gradually the physical, chemical and metallurgical background is clarified. Operational observations, challenges and remedies are explained from this perspective. Optimization of the blast furnace process is not only based on “best practice transfer”, but also requires conceptual understanding of what works when. In other words: operational improvement is not only based on know–how, but on know–why as well. With Modern Blast Furnace Ironmaking – An Introduction (Third Edition, 2015) the reader has a compact compendium of the blast furnace process available: by operators and for operators and for those who are preparing to become operators.