Research on technical parameters of electrical arc furnace steelmaking based on direct reduced iron as raw material

In this study, factors influencing the smelting parameters of electrical arc furnace were studied by using a material balance and energy balance model. The smelting parameters include electrical energy consumption, lime consumption, coke consumption, oxygen consumption, natural gas consumption, electrode consumption, smoke and dust volume, steel scrap consumption, direct reduced iron consumption and smelting cost. The consumption of electrical energy and electrode, as well as the smelting cost, decrease with the increase of charging temperature, total iron content, metallization degree, and carbon content of direct reduced iron. An increase in the charging temperature and total iron content of direct reduced iron is beneficial to decrease the consumption of coke, oxygen, natural gas, steel scrap and direct reduced iron, as well as the smoke and dust volume. The same applies to decrease the metallization degree and carbon content of direct reduced iron. It was also found that increasing the charging temperature, metallization degree, and carbon content of direct reduced iron has almost no effect on lime consumption, but an increase in the total iron content of direct reduced iron can reduce lime consumption.