Optimal resource allocation in integrated steelmaking with biomass as auxiliary reductant in the blast furnace

Anders Carl-Mikael Wiklund, Frank Pettersson, Henrik Saxén

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    20 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    An integrated steel plant with two blast furnaces with the option to use biomass to partially substitute fossil reductants was simulated. A thermodynamic blast furnace model was used, combined with simpler models of the other unit processes (sintermaking, cokemaking, basic oxygen furnace, hot stoves and power plant) and a nonlinear model of the biomass conversion with respect to the processing temperature. Given an aim steel production rate for the plant, the economics of the plant was optimized by minimizing the specific costs of liquid steel, considering costs of raw materials, energy and CO2 emissions. Limited supply of sinter and coke was optimally allocated to the two blast furnaces and the effects of restrictions in the biomass, oxygen and oil supply on the operating states were studied. An analysis was also undertaken to study how the production rate of the plant would affect the optimal state. The results demonstrate that a non-uniform distribution of the resources can be economically justified, in particular for cases where the blast furnaces operate under different constraints.
    Original languageUndefined/Unknown
    Pages (from-to)35–44
    Number of pages10
    JournalIsij International
    Volume52
    Issue number1
    Publication statusPublished - 2012
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Keywords

    • biomass
    • CO2 emissions
    • cost optimization
    • resource allocation
    • steel plant

    Cite this