Sun Coke Company's heat recovery cokemaking technology has been developed over the past 40 years, and is now poised to become the dominant technology to meet future global cokemaking needs. An extensive data base regarding coal blends tested and resultant coke quality will be presented. On the environmental front, extensive air emission data has been collected and will be compared to by-product coke plant air emission data.

The coke making industry has seen substantial technological development over the last decade. Conventional coke ovens (slot type ovens) with raw gas recovery have reached dimensions of more than 8 m height and 90 m3 useful oven volume, boosting the capacity of a single battery to 1.3 Mt/y and the production of a single coke plant with one operating team to 2.6 Mt/y. At the same time, the emissions from batteries and gas treatment facilities have been reduced to the lowest amounts ever. A further increase in energy efficiency and environmental protection for conventional coke batteries is expected from the combustion of the hot raw gas with subsequent generation of electricity. The concept of a coke plant with direct combustion of the raw gas would omit the entire gas treatment plant and produce only coke and power. Aside from these achievements with conventional coke oven batteries, the non-recovery technology has also found acceptance. Coke plants of this type are in operation in the USA, Australia and India. One plant in the USA is a heat-recovery coke plant that produces power from the waste gas. Further improvements in plant efficiency and coke quality are achieved with stamping of the coal charge, which is now developed for non-recovery ovens, too.

CPM developed a mechanical sensor to measure coke oven wall deflections. This sensor was used in Dunkirk coke plant under normal operating conditions and showed reversible deflections between 1 and 1.5 mm when plastic layers meet at the oven centre. Special blends, with a high content of low volatile coals, were charged in several ovens of the Drocourt coke plant. In those conditions, CPM noticed the same phenomena as in Dunkirk plant but also reversible wall deflections just after charging.

The greenhouse gas emissions of a steel mill have already been described rather extensively from a process metallurgy point-of-view and the potential impact of alternative technologies has been estimated, especially by taking into account innovative concepts that still need long term development. To progress further, it is necessary to carry out the analysis at a broader scale than the steel mill itself. Downstream, it is possible to utilize slag in the cement industry to replace natural resources, blast furnace gases in an energy optimized power plant and coke oven gas to produce hydrogen to be used as a fuel to power fuel cell driven electrical automobiles. Upstream, it also makes sense to use secondary raw materials and secondary energy sources instead of coal or natural gas. Moreover, sustainable recycling, i.e. carried out an indefinite number of times, reduces emissions drastically.

The steel industry in Europe has demonstrated a major commitment to reduce the environmental burden of its activities. The investments in environmental protection can be estimated between 5 and 15 % of the total capital expenditures to improve the individual operations. These efforts are strengthened by the technological evolution of the steel making sector and by an increase of the recycling route. The new development of viable techniques is still required to further reduce the emissions to the air, mainly from sinter plants and to decrease the amount of waste. Finally, it will become necessary in the future to fundamentally rethink the use of reducing agents to reduce the CO2 emissions.

Ironmaking in Germany has a long tradition, from the factories constructed near the coal mines and the iron ore mines in the second half of the 19th century to the remaining six active locations of integrated iron and steelworks today. This paper describes the main five periods of blast furnace technology and operation mode developments from 1945 on. This includes the decrease of reductant consumption achieved by several measures like improvement of the charge materials (iron ore burden and coke), the injection of auxiliary reducing agents and the main plant technology improvements. This demonstrates that during this period of time the blast furnace process has gained considerable economical ground.

This paper presents the experience that EKO Stahl has gained with the blast furnace injection of plastics and animal fats as alternative reducing agents since 1993. The specific pieces of equipment that have been designed and implemented for handling, storing and injecting these substances into the blast furnace tuyeres are described. The parameters that allow line stability and the overall effects on blast furnace operation are reported.

The results achieved with the COREX plants presently in operation show that this technology is a true alternative to the conventional blast furnace. With the experience gained from these plants, continuing developments have been made for the COREX process itself (recycling of steel plant wastes and use of other raw materials), for the equipment design and in the area of investment costs and profitability.

This paper presents a portable condition monitoring system named MAPREX which was developed as result of the cooperation between the University of Oviedo and Aceralia inside of a research project funded by the ECSC - Steel RTD Program. The system integrates powerful monitoring and data visualization techniques based on the Self Organizing Map (SOM) algorithm. In this paper is described in detail the system architecture and performances, visualization techniques implemented and an example displaying real data from a 6,000 kW DC motor of a hot strip mill rolling stand.

Roughness is a fundamental requirement when it comes to galvanizing sheet metal for making cars. Segal worked with Alstom and DMO to develop a measuring apparatus that makes it possible to monitor the Ra roughness factor at every point and throughout the process. The new system has been installed on the Segal galvanizing line. Two measuring heads (WINDIS) with travelling system have been installed, one on each side, after the skin-pass allowing a continuous measurement of the roughness. Alstom roughness control system is composed of an Alstom HPC controller linked to Windis and PC computer. The roughness measurement system has been in operation for a few months and the results show a very satisfactory correlation of Windis measurements with the manual measurements carried out in the laboratory.

As a part of the Arcelor project concerning the prediction of the capability (“ Évaluation Prévisionnelle des Capabilités ” project), models are developed to predict the mechanical properties of austenitic stainless steel coils processed on the Ugine&ALZ integrated cold rolling line LC2i. Two approaches are used: statistical models resulting from an analysis of industrial databases, and physical based modelling accounting for the recrystallization mechanism during the final annealing to estimate the mechanical behaviour of the final product, including twinning and martensite induced transformation mechanisms. The work leads to the prediction of the yield stress and the tensile strength along the cold-rolled and annealed coil; the calculated mechanical values are in good agreement with the measurement on samples taken from coils of AISI 304 grade (UGINOX 18-9 E).

VAI Clecim and their customer partners have developed a new strip welder, adapted to the flash-butt-welding of even the newer types of steel (dual phase, TRIP) with their specific requirements. This welding machine is already in use at several steel rolling plants and gives best results.