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EAF Energy Optimization at Nucor Yamato

Omar Quintanilla Regulation Engineer Nucor-Yamato Steel Company 5929 Highway 18 East Armorel Arkansas 72310 870-762 5500 ext 146 oquintanilla@nucor-yamato.com Guillermo Fernandez Technology Manager AMIGE International Blvd Gustavo Diaz Ordaz 402 Piso 2 Monterrey NL, Mxico 64650 (52) (81) 1001-4076 gfernandez@amige.com

Introduction
Nucor Yamato Steel is continuously working to improve the operations all time. The energy input optimization has always been at a good performance level, but there is always been turnarounds on the way to achieve better results. The most difficult part of the adjustment process is that the control system is divided into several control sub-systems which interact between each other. These sub-systems do not take into account the effects of changes made to another sub-systems, and are developed by different vendors in their own knowledge area. As an example, reducing the exhaust gas negative pressure may produce less energy losses, but it may cause the furnace to be more prone to cross-arcing and so to damages and loss of time. In order to optimize the EAF process as a whole, new SmartFurnace modules were added to the SmartArc system. The SmartArc control system has been in place since 1997 for controlling the electrical energy input at NYS. The new SmartFurnace modules were added in order to take on-line control of the Burner System and the Exhaust Gas system. In this paper we will first present a description of the EAF system, then well talk about the main issues in the pursue of high performance, then we will present a brief description of the new control modules and their added flexibility in order to cope with the main variations in the other subsystems. Finally well show some of the new features tested and the evolution of some of the adjustments and the results.

System description
Electrical System
NYS has an AC EAF with a 90MVA transformer with a two position online reactor. Using a 0.609 meter electrode diameter in a in a 1.12 meter pitch circle diameter. Figure 3. The Table has the transformer low voltage amps and volts in all the tap positions.
Xfrmr tap 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Sec volts

929 940 947 958 966 978

986 994 1,002 1,015 1,023 1,036 1,045 1,055 1,064 1,078 1,088 1,098
HV current A

1,506 1,506 1,506 1,506 1,506 1,506 1,506 1,506 1,506 1,506 1,506 1,506 1,506 1,506 1,506 1,506 1,506 1,506
LV cuerrent kA

55.94 55.30 54.87 54.22 53.79 53.14 52.71 52.28 51.85 51.21 50.78 50.13 49.70 49.27 48.84 48.20 47.77 47.34
MVA

90.0 90.0 90.0 90.0 90.0 90.0 90.0 90.0 90.0 90.0 90.0 90.0 90.0 90.0 90.0 90.0 90.0 90.0

Burner System
Four burners are located around the shell generating 6.9 MW each. The three port burners are used in Burner Mode creating combustion between low flow oxygen and natural gas, the Lance Mode uses supersonic oxygen flow and injected carbon. The nominal flows are: 10.5 m3/min Natural Gas 42 m3/min Oxygen Gas 40 kilogram/min Carbon Figure 4. The four burners modules in the furnace

Shell
The shell was designed to tap 122 metric tons and handle 10% of

hot heal.

Exhaust Gas Syste m

The exhaust gas system control keeps a constant pressure inside the furnace during regulation. This is possible by a pressure transmitter inside the furnace shell and a variable damper position. A step table is used to change the pressure set-point during the heat.

System Control