Material and energy flows of the iron and steel industry: Status quo, challenges and perspectives

Wenqiang Sun,Qiang Wang,Yue Zhou,Jianzhong Wu

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.114946

Wenqiang Sun, Qiang Wang + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.114946

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Abstract

Integrated analysis and optimization of material and energy flows in the iron and steel industry have drawn considerable interest from steelmakers, energy engineers, policymakers, financial firms, and academic researchers. Numerous publications in this area have identified their great potential to bring significant benefits and innovation. Although much technical work has been done to analyze and optimize material and energy flows, there is a lack of overview of material and energy flows of the iron and steel industry. To fill this gap, this work first provides an overview of different steel production routes. Next, the modelling, scheduling and interrelation regarding material and energy flows in the iron and steel industry are presented by thoroughly reviewing the existing literature. This study selects eighty publications on the material and energy flows of steelworks, from which a map of the potential of integrating material and energy flows for iron and steel sites is constructed. The paper discusses the challenges to be overcome and the future directions of material and energy flow research in the iron and steel industry, including the fundamental understandings of flow mechanisms, the dynamic material and energy flow scheduling and optimization, the synergy between material and energy flows, flexible production processes and flexible energy systems, smart steel manufacturing and smart energy systems, and revolutionary steelmaking routes and technologies.

Highlights

As the second largest energy user in the global industrial sectors [1], the iron and steel industry is highly dependent on fossil fuels [2] and releases massive amounts of environmentally harmful substances [3]
The contribution of this review is to provide a timely, academic-led discussion of material and energy flows of the iron and steel industry
This paper presented an overview of different steel production routes, including the BF–BOF route, the electric arc furnace (EAF) route, and the combination of them

Summary

Introduction

As the second largest energy user in the global industrial sectors [1], the iron and steel industry is highly dependent on fossil fuels [2] and releases massive amounts of environmentally harmful substances [3]. With rapid urbanization and industrialization, the demand for steel has increased over the last several decades [4]. Previous studies have concluded that the increasing output of crude steel is the most important factor leading to the remarkable increase in the total energy consumption and environmental emissions of the iron and steel industry. By contrast, decreasing the energy intensity (i.e. specific energy consumption [8]) is the most important factor that reduces gross energy consumption and emissions [9,10]. Energy efficiency improvement or energy conservation are the most controllable factors that influence the energy consumption and

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