OptDeslag - Increased yield and enhanced steel quality by improved deslagging and slag conditioning

Initial situation:

The performance of many metallurgical operations is significantly influenced by the condition of the slag. Therefore, in some cases the slag has to be removed as far as possible. When the deslagging process is overdone, liquid steel/hot metal from the liquid bulk may also be removed, which contributes significantly to losses of steel/hot metal.

Project targets:

  • to improve the monitoring and control of deslagging operations, for reproducible performance of the deslagging process and to minimise the amounts of remaining slag and the metallic losses,
  • to establish dynamic online process models to monitor and control the slag condition throughout important steps of steelmaking, for improved quality of the steel by adapting subsequent steelmaking processes to the amount of slag that remains after deslagging.

Innovative approaches:

  • Monitoring of deslagging operations using CCD and IR cameras
  • Development of deslagging schemes for optimum deslagging and dynamic online process models
  • Implementation of deslagging schemes and model-based control systems and validation at two steelmaking plants by sampling and analysis

Benefits for the industry:

  • Reproducible performance of the deslagging process
  • Online determination of the amount of remaining slag
  • Minimise amount of remaining slag before entering secondary metallurgy
  • Predict impact of remaining slag on metallurgical operations
  • Calculate set-points for slag conditioning
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