Application of mass and energy balance in oxygen steelmaking

Mass and energy balances are vital for understanding and analysing the oxygen steelmaking process. Steelmaking plants commonly have in-house static balance models for controlling the process parameters. The present model uses semi-empirical relations for developing generalized mass and energy balance models. The developed models compute the mass of flux required, heat of post-combustion, heat needed for scrap melting, and flux dissolution based on tapping temperature and end-composition of steel. The study highlights the importance of scrap to hot metal ratio on optimizing the oxygen steelmaking process in terms of global warming potential or CO2 generated, O2 supply, mass of flux, and heat loss during the blow. The results were validated with the plant data from Tata Steel, IJmuiden, and represented using a nomogram. This nomogram provides a simple way for plant operators to estimate important process parameters and this approach could be extended to many similar plants.