RFCS Project CONOX

Control of Nitrogen Oxide Emission at the Electric Arc Furnace

The CONOX pro­ject has been focu­sed on inves­ti­ga­ting the elec­tric steel­ma­king pro­cess in the EAF and, as a spe­cial case, the Con­s­teel EAF with regards to NO_x emis­si­ons. The inves­ti­ga­ti­ons were car­ri­ed out by a con­sor­ti­um of rese­arch insti­tu­tes (RWTH, CSM) and three elec­tric steel­ma­king plants (DEWG, ORI Mar­tin, RIVA Vero­na) with a wide ran­ge of pro­du­ced steel gra­des and EAF tech­no­lo­gies (oxy­gen, dust, and coal injec­tors, gas bur­ners, CoJets, scrap pre­hea­ting, slag foaming).

The pro­ject was based on the com­bi­na­ti­on of expe­ri­men­tal inves­ti­ga­ti­ons of the NO_x for­ma­ti­on in EAFs at indus­tri­al plants as well as pilot plant EAFs at well defi­ned con­di­ti­ons and model­ling of the NO_x for­ma­ti­on in the EAF. The gene­ral objec­ti­ve was to ela­bo­ra­te gui­de­lines to redu­ce NO_x emis­si­ons from the Con­s­teel pro­cess (CSM, ORI) as well as stan­dard EAFs employ­ing various EAF tech­no­lo­gies (RWTH, DEWG, RIVA).

The acti­vi­ties of CSM and ORI have been focu­sed on the inves­ti­ga­ti­on of the Con­s­teel pro­cess. A semi empi­ri­cal model of NO_x emis­si­ons has been deve­lo­ped based on lite­ra­tu­re data, pilot fur­nace tests and indus­tri­al mea­su­re­ments. Plant mea­su­re­ments car­ri­ed out per­mit­ted to quan­ti­fy the amount of NO_x gene­ra­ted in the EAF and down­stream in the tun­nel and pro­vi­ded data for model refi­ning and appli­ca­ti­on. The model has been appli­ed to sup­port the defi­ni­ti­on of impro­ved gui­de­lines to decrease NO_x emissions.

The acti­vi­ties of RWTH, DEWG and RIVA have been focu­sed on the expe­ri­men­tal inves­ti­ga­ti­on and model­ling of dif­fe­rent pro­cess con­di­ti­ons and a deduc­tion of pre­dic­tions regar­ding NO_x for­ma­ti­on. The­se pre­dic­tions have been fur­ther inves­ti­ga­ted and vali­da­ted by indus­tri­al plant mea­su­re­ment. Even­tual­ly best prac­ti­ces to redu­ce NO_x emis­si­ons have been deri­ved from the com­bi­ned results of model­ling and indus­tri­al measurements.

Final Report

Pfei­fer, H.; Ech­ter­hof, T.; Voj, L.; Gru­ber, J.; Jung, H.-P.; Lenz, S.; Bei­ler, C.; Ciril­li, F.; De Miran­da, U.; Vene­ri, N.; Bres­san, E.: Con­trol of nitro­gen oxi­de emis­si­on at the elec­tric arc fur­nace — CONOX, EUR 25078, Rese­arch Fund for Coal and Steel series, Publi­ca­ti­ons Office of the Euro­pean Uni­on, (2012), Luxem­bourg, ISBN 978–92-79–22227‑6

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The rese­arch lea­ding to the­se results has recei­ved fun­ding from the Euro­pean Community’s Rese­arch Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) under grant agree­ment n° RFSR-CT-2006–00033.