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Analysis of Electrical Energy Consumption in a Novel Direct Current Submerged Arc Furnace for Ferrochrome Production

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Abstract

Submerged arc furnace is a smelting device with high efficiency but huge electricity consumption. A novel structure of direct current (DC) submerged arc furnace is investigated for ferrochrome production to save electric energy. For this purpose, a three-dimensional transient multi-physics model is developed to simulate the furnace. Via the model, the effects of two key variables are quantified: electrode insertion depth and operating voltage. A new criterion, i.e., SAF smelting rate \(\left( {\zeta^{ * } } \right)\), is proposed to evaluate the electrical energy consumption. The effects of burden porosity and metallic oxide percentage are clarified with respect to electrical energy consumption. The results show that this DC submerged arc furnace can effectively reduce the electrical energy consumption compared with the AC submerged arc furnace. Increasing the electrode insertion depth and electric voltage, the chromium to iron ratio increases by 72.62 and 39.46 pct. Remarkably, the temperatures of the furnace burden below the anode and cathode are different. With increasing of burden porosity, the ferrochrome production ratio \(\left( {\omega^{ * } } \right)\) decreases by 120.52 pct and \(\zeta^{ * }\) increases by 59.73 pct. Moreover, as the Cr2O3 percentage in the furnace burden increases, \(\omega^{ * }\) and \(\zeta^{ * }\) increase by 9.19 and 20.17 pct, respectively. The results are analyzed in detail to understand the smelting process of DC submerged arc furnace for better furnace design.

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Abbreviations

\(\vec{A}\) :

Magnetic potential vector (V s m−1)

\(\vec{B}\) :

Magnetic field (T)

c :

Mass fraction of metallic oxides

\(c_{{{\text{Cr}}_{{2}} {\text{O}}_{{3}} }}\) :

Proportion of Cr2O3 in the furnace burden

\(c_{{{\text{Iron}} {\text{oxides}}}}\) :

Proportion of iron oxides in the furnace burden

C 2 :

Inertial resistance coefficient

D E :

Electrode diameter (m)

D F :

Furnace hearth diameter (m)

D P :

Equivalent diameter of porous media (m)

D S :

Electrode spacing (m)

\(\vec{F}_{L}\) :

Lorentz force (N m−3)

\({\vec{\text{g}}}\) :

Gravity (m s−2)

h :

Heat transfer coefficient (W m−2 K−1)

H :

Electrode insertion depth (m)

H A :

Submerged arc height (m)

H F :

Furnace hearth height (m)

i :

x, y, and z direction

\(\overline{I}_{{{\text{phase}}}}\) :

Phase current (kA)

j :

Serial number of simplified reaction

\(\vec{J}\) :

Electric current density (A m−2)

k :

Reaction rate constant (s−1)

K :

Coefficient to determine whether the reduction reaction occurs

\(\Delta m\) :

Mass of ferrochrome (kg)

M :

Coefficient to determine the calculation domain

n :

Number of transformers

P :

Pressure (Pa)

P Cr :

Percentage of Cr in ferrochrome

P Fe :

Percentage of Fe in ferrochrome

\(\Delta Q\) :

Energy consumption (kVA)

Q Arc :

Submerged arc heat (W m−3)

Q J :

Joule heat (W m−3)

Q Rea :

Reactive heat (W m−3)

R :

Ideal gas constant (8.314 J mol−1 K−1)

SC :

Variation of reactant (kg m−3 s−1)

\(\vec{S}\) :

Momentum source term (kg m−2 s−2)

t :

Physical time (s)

\(\Delta t\) :

Smelting time (s)

T :

Temperature (K)

T Wall :

Temperature of the hearth wall (K)

T max :

Maximum temperature (K)

T Initial :

Initial temperature (K)

\(\vec{u}\) :

Velocity vector (m s−1)

\(U_{\varphi }^{ * }\) :

Operating voltage drop ratio

V :

Furnace volume (m3)

X :

Mass fractional conversion rate of metallic oxides (s−1)

\(\alpha\) :

Permeability coefficient

\(\mu_{0}\) :

Magnetic conductivity (H m−1)

μ eff :

Dynamic viscosity (Pa s)

λ :

Equivalent thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)

ρ :

Fluid density (kg m−3)

σ :

Electrical conductivity (S m−1)

\(\varphi_{{{\text{Arc}}}}\) :

Arc phase voltage drop (V)

\(\varphi_{{{\text{Burden}}}}\) :

Furnace burden voltage drop (V)

\(\varphi_{{{\text{Ele}}}}\) :

Electrode phase voltage drop (V)

\(\varphi^{\prime}_{{{\text{Phase}}}}\) :

Actual phase voltage drop (V)

\(\varphi_{{{\text{Phase}}}}^{ + }\) :

Phase voltage drop of anode (V)

\(\varphi_{{{\text{Phase}}}}^{ - }\) :

Phase voltage drop of cathode (V)

\(p^{ * }\) :

Burden porosity

\(\beta_{H}^{ * }\) :

Electrode insertion depth ratio

\(\omega\) :

Ferrochrome productivity (kg s−1)

\(\omega_{F}\) :

Standard ferrochrome productivity (kg s−1)

\(\omega^{ * }\) :

Ferrochrome production ratio

\(\zeta\) :

Furnace smelting capacity per unit ferrochrome (kWh t−1)

\(\zeta_{F}\) :

Standard furnace smelting capacity per unit ferrochrome (kWh t−1)

\(\zeta^{ * }\) :

SAF smelting rate

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51934002 and 52171031), Research and Evaluation Facilities for Service Safety of Major Engineering Materials National Major Science and Technology Infrastructure Open Project Fund (Grant No. MSAF-2021-009), and the 111 Project (Grant No. B16009).

Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, Liaoning, P.R. China

    Yang Yu, Baokuan Li, Zhongqiu Liu, Fengsheng Qi, Chengjun Liu & Wenjie Rong

  2. National Frontiers Science Center for Industrial Intelligence and Systems Optimization, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, Liaoning, P.R. China

    Yang Yu, Baokuan Li, Zhongqiu Liu, Fengsheng Qi, Chengjun Liu & Wenjie Rong

  3. Key Laboratory of Data Analytics and Optimization for Smart Industry (Northeastern University), Ministry of Education, Shenyang, 110819, Liaoning, P.R. China

    Yang Yu, Baokuan Li, Zhongqiu Liu, Fengsheng Qi, Chengjun Liu & Wenjie Rong

  4. ARC Research Hub for Computational Particle Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia

    Shibo Kuang

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  1. Yang Yu
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Yu, Y., Li, B., Liu, Z. et al. Analysis of Electrical Energy Consumption in a Novel Direct Current Submerged Arc Furnace for Ferrochrome Production. Metall Mater Trans B 54, 2370–2382 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11663-023-02838-w

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