qoncept technology GmbH

Electromagnetic Stirring (EMS) in Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) Steelmaking ⚡   📊 We conducted a survey of steelmakers using electromagnetic stirring in EAF operations for heat sizes between 70t - 100t and their reported impact on efficiency, quality and overall steelmaking performance.   The main benefits reported by the users can be summarized as follows: 🔹Improved Chemical Homogeneity: The EMS creates a controlled stirring action in the melt, ensuring that the alloying elements and additives are uniformly distributed. This reduces chemical variations and helps achieve homogeneous steel composition. 🔹Better Temperature Distribution: Electromagnetic stirring helps in evening out the temperature throughout the molten bath, reducing temperature gradients. This ensures uniform heat transfer, reducing the risk of cold spots or overheating in specific areas. 🔹Improved Heat Transfer: By increasing convection within the molten steel, the EMS promotes better heat transfer, leading to faster melting of scrap and alloys. This efficiency can reduce the overall energy required for each heat cycle. 🔹Shorter Melting Times: Due to more effective stirring, the melting process can often be completed in less time, cutting down the electric energy consumption. 🔹Improved Desulfurization and Decarburization: EMS enhances the contact between the molten steel and slag, aiding in the removal of sulfur and other impurities. 🔹Increased Productivity: With more uniform heating and faster melting, the tap-to-tap time can be reduced, allowing more heats to be processed in a shorter time. 🔹Reduced Electrode Consumption: The improved stirring action allows for more efficient use of energy, which can reduce electrodes consumption by up to 0,1 kg/t. 🔹Reduced Lining Wear: The more even temperature distribution also helps in reducing localized hot spots, which can cause premature wear on the furnace refractory lining. 📝 Are you experiencing the same effects in your operations? Please let us know in the comments, we’d love to hear about your experience! Follow qoncept for more insights or get in touch with us to learn more about our solutions for efficient and sustainable steelmaking. #EAF #Metallurgy #KnowHow #Steelmaking

Laboratory vs Real Life 🌍Globally, the production of direct reduction iron (DRI) reached a total of over 91 million tons in recent years, with the Middle East and North Africa representing the largest producers. India is one of the foremost producers of DRI, accounting for over 43 million tons, predominantly utilizing coal-based DRI. ♨️The use of DRI and Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI) in Electric Arc Furnaces (EAF) is an issue that is and will continue to be a major focus for many steel mills. ⚡️However, in addition to EAFs, DRI is also used in induction furnaces to produce steel at several plants around the world. At qoncept technology GmbH we pride ourselves on our involvement in both laboratory and industrial scale projects, giving us invaluable experience in dealing with DRI. This experience is then incorporated into our services and products for our customers. #DRI #EAF #Steelmaking

♨ In Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) steelmaking, the term "hot heel" refers to maintaining a pool of molten metal and slag at the bottom of the furnace. This molten heel serves several purposes, and its presence can have important effects on the efficiency and quality of the steelmaking process. 🔹Energy Savings The hot heel helps to reduce the amount of energy required to melt the next charge of scrap steel since a portion of the metal is already in a molten state. 🔹Faster Melting Rate The molten steel and slag in the hot heel provide a direct medium for transferring heat to the incoming scrap metal. This accelerates the melting process by improving heat transfer from the arc and the molten bath to the solid scrap.   🔹Reduced Power-On Time With a hot heel in place, the furnace can more quickly melt the incoming scrap metal, leading to a shorter overall cycle or "tap-to-tap" time.   🔹Smoother Operation A hot heel promotes better arc stability since the molten bath absorbs the energy from the arc more consistently, reducing the variability in heat transfer and temperature fluctuations. This can lower the risk of disruptions, like excessive slag foaming or uneven scrap melting.   🔹Reduced Electrode Consumption By maintaining a more stable molten bath and reducing the need for excess energy input, a hot heel can help extend the lifespan of the graphite electrodes.   🔹Stabilized Chemical Reactions A hot heel can help in stabilizing chemical reactions like carbon boil (when carbon reacts with oxygen, releasing CO gas), which is crucial for controlling the carbon content in the steel.   🔹Slag Composition Control By maintaining a molten slag, the furnace can more quickly bring the slag into the desired chemical range for better metallurgical performance.   ❗A sound hot heel practice also requires careful heat sequencing and compositional control of the hot heel as it can greatly impact the chemistry of the succeeding heat.   ⚖ In summary, the presence of a hot heel in EAF steelmaking improves energy efficiency, reduces cycle time and stabilizes furnace operation. However, it requires careful management to balance the benefits with potential wear on the furnace lining.   Get in touch with us to find out how you can boost your EAF performance and follow qoncept for more insights.   #EAF #metallurgy #steelmaking #hotheel

If you are at #Ankiros, stop by at the CEFIP Makina stand (Hall 5 E145) and find out about our solutions that improve the way people work in the steel mill and make it a safer place. Safety in the workplace is a top priority in the design, manufacture and use of machines. Safety is given special consideration at qoncept technology GmbH and is reflected in our products: - qoupler G: The best automatic gas coupler in the market - qoupler M: The heavy duty multiline coupler is a patented, quick, safe, reliable and maintenance friendly automatic multi-media connection device for coupling different media in harsh environments. - qoupler D: Our latest breakthrough is a cutting-edge multimedia slide gate coupling system. It enables seamless, fully automatic coupling of the ladle slide cylinder. #Steelmaking #Safety #Coupling #Coupler

HALL 5 E145 Come by and get to know our products and solutions for safe and efficient steel production. You will find us at the CEFIP Makina both: HALL 5 E145

** Cool Runnings ** We are proud to have speedy teammates in qoncept and we are also grateful to be able to support young people in becoming athletes 💪. Despite chilling temperatures we are proud of participating at the annual Leoben running event LE Laufevent with three teams. Our ladies team made it to podium winning second place in the overall ranking. Congratulations to Julia, Valentina and Elisabeth to making their 16 km in 01:12:59 hrs. The two other teams made 14th (01:11:54) and 21th (01:16:27) place out of 125 participating teams. We'd love for you to follow us on LinkedIn! That way, you can stay up to date with all our latest projects, news, events, and behind-the-scenes material.

Unraveling the Energy Behind Electric Arc Furnaces ♨ ⚡ The energy consumption in an electric arc furnace (EAF) is a critical factor in steel production, and several sources contribute to this energy input. 📊 Below diagram summarizes the primary energy contributions from more than 60 different industrial EAFs with various heat sizes and specifications. 🔹Electrical Energy: Electrical energy is the dominant source in an EAF. It is supplied through graphite electrodes that create an electric arc, which generates heat by ionizing air or gases between the electrodes and the scrap or metal charge. The efficiency of electrical energy use depends on factors such as furnace design, the quality of raw materials, foamy slag practice and others. 🔹Chemical Energy: Chemical energy in an EAF is derived from combustion reactions, such as the oxidation of carbon and other elements in the melt. The energy released from oxidation reactions strongly depends on the amount of injected oxygen, carbon and the charge mix composition. 🔹 Gas burners: These burners inject a mixture of oxygen and fuel (natural gas or oil) into the furnace, which helps preheat the scrap and provide chemical energy. 🔹Scrap Preheating: Some EAFs utilize a preheating system for scrap (known as shaft furnaces or scrap preheaters) using hot off-gases from the furnace. This process reduces the amount of electrical energy needed to melt the scrap, improving energy efficiency. 🔥Other factors include post-combustion, where oxygen injected into the furnace reacts with carbon monoxide (CO) in the furnace atmosphere to produce carbon dioxide (CO₂) and release additional energy, typically around 20 to 40 kWh per ton of steel produced. 🎯 With our raw material optimization software “qontrol maps” you can include these energy contributions to calculate the ideal energy balance for your furnace together with the ideal charge mix at lowest total cost. Get in touch with us to learn more about our solutions and follow qoncept to stay updated about how we contribute to a sustainable steel industry. #steelmaking #EAF #energy #metallurgy

DRI/HBI increases EAF energy consumption – but why❓ ♨ The characteristics of direct reduced iron (DRI) have a significant impact on the melting energy consumption in steelmaking, here are the key factors involved: 👍 Temperature of DRI: If DRI is used while it is still hot from the reduction process (e.g. 650 °C), the energy required to melt it can be significantly lower. Cold DRI requires additional energy to heat, increasing overall energy consumption. 👍 Iron Content: DRI with higher iron content (e.g. 94 %Fe) means there is more pure iron available to be melted, leading to more efficient use of energy. DRI with lower iron content (e.g. 90 %Fe) requires more energy because more energy is needed to melt impurities and gangue materials. 👍 Carbon Content: DRI often contains a high carbon content (e.g. 3 – 4 %C), which can act as a reducing agent during melting, helping to reduce iron oxides and providing some additional energy. If the carbon content is low (e.g. 1-2 %C), additional energy must be supplied to achieve the same reduction and melting, which increases overall energy consumption. 👎 Moisture Content: If DRI contains significant moisture (e.g. 1,5 %), more energy is consumed to evaporate the water before melting can occur, increasing overall energy consumption. Lower moisture content (e.g. 0,5 %) leads to less energy being wasted in evaporation, improving efficiency. 👎 Oxygen Content: The presence of oxygen, often in the form of iron oxides (FeO, Fe2O3), requires additional energy to be reduced during melting. The higher the oxygen content (e.g. 3% FeO), the more energy is consumed in reducing these oxides to metallic iron. Lower oxygen content (e.g. 0,5 %FeO) means less reduction work is needed, leading to lower energy consumption. 👎 Gangue and Impurities: Gangue materials (silica, alumina, etc.) are non-metallic impurities that are present in DRI. High levels of gangue (e.g. 8%) require more energy to melt and contribute to significant slag amount and additional lime consumption. Reducing gangue content (e.g. 3 %) improves melting efficiency and energy consumption.   ⚡ Optimizing DRI properties can significantly reduce the energy required in the melting process. Depending on operational conditions and furnace efficiencies, optimal DRI composition can result in melting energy between 400–550 kWh/ton, whereas suboptimal DRI composition can increase energy consumption to 550–700 kWh/ton. 🎯 We have included a DRI/HBI model in our raw material management system to determine the ideal amount of DRI/HBI, steel scrap or any other raw material to ensure target steel quality at lowest possible OPEX for each heat. Get in touch with us to learn more about our solutions and follow qoncept to stay updated with more insights from our upcoming posts. #steelmaking #EAF #metallurgy #software

We love and live metallurgy ❤ … … and we are thrilled that our posts generate so much love and engagement from our LinkedIn community. 📢 This one goes out to all the metallurgists, engineers, process developers, technologists, and anyone else who shares our passion and excitement for metallurgy! 🏅 We are eager at qoncept to provide you with more know-how content and to contribute to a more sustainable steelmaking industry. You Rock 💪!!!

We love and live metallurgy ❤ … … and we are thrilled that our posts generate so much love and engagement from our LinkedIn community. 📢 This one goes out to all the metallurgists, engineers, process developers, technologists, and anyone else who shares our passion and excitement for metallurgy! 🏅 We are eager at qoncept to provide you with more know-how content and to contribute to a more sustainable steelmaking industry. You Rock 💪!!!