EAF gas waste heat utilization and discussion of the energy conservation and CO2 emissions reduction

Abstract

As a large number of energy was taken away by the high temperature furnace gas during the EAF smelting process, a huge economic and environmental benefits would obtained to recycle and utilize. In this paper, the energy of the EAF was analyzed theoretically with the hot metal ratio of 50%. Combined with the utilization of the gas waste heat during the scrap preheating, electricity generation, production of steam and production of coal gas processes, the effect of the energy saving and emission was calculated with comprehensive utilization of the high temperature furnace gas. An optimal scheme for utilization of the waste heat was proposed based on the calculation. The results show that the best way for energy saving and carbon reduction is the production of coal gas, while the optimal scheme for waste heat utilization is combined the production of coal gas with the scrap preheating, which will save 170 kWh/t of energy and decrease 57.88 kg/t of carbon emission. As hot metal ratio in EAF steelmaking is often more than 50%, which will produce more EAF gas waste heat, optimizing EAF gas waste heat utilization will have more obvious effect on energy saving and emission reduction.