Modeling of Electric Smelting Furnaces for Ironmaking: A Review

The electric smelting furnace (ESF) is a crucial technology for decarbonizing steelmaking and ironmaking, especially as the industry shifts toward processing iron ores with higher gangue content. Building on the discussion presented in the introductory paper [ 1 ], the present paper reviews commercially available direct reduced iron (DRI) smelting technologies, heat losses due to radiation, mass and energy balance modeling, and various modeling approaches for studying ESF furnaces. Mass and energy balance modeling of an ESF model showed that every 1.0 wt % increase in carbon increased energy demand to 10 kWh/tHM at 1500 °C [ 2 ]. Every 1.0 wt % increase in the gangue increased the specific energy consumption (SEC) by 13–20 kWh/tHM, depending on the metallization ratio (MR). Every 1.0 wt % increase in MR also decreased the SEC by an average of 12 kWh/tHM [ 2 ]. A review of ESF modeling showed that understanding the arc and plasma in an electric smelting furnace is crucial for accurately evaluating heat transfer processes within the furnace. Furthermore, a clear insight into the various heat transfer mechanisms—such as Joule heating, convective heat transfer, radiative losses, and conductive heat losses—is important for effectively controlling and improving furnace energy efficiency. While there is extensive modeling work on the performance and efficiency of submerged arc furnaces (SAFs) and electric arc furnaces (EAFs), independent studies on open slag bath furnaces (OSBFs) are limited. There is a need to model the brush arc of OSBF furnaces and how heat is distributed across different parts of the process.