Optical emission spectroscopy as a method to improve the process automation of electric arc furnaces and ladle furnaces

The steel industry is on its way towards more environmentally friendly steelmaking. To achieve the ambitious goals of significant CO2 emissions reduction, new processes, practices, sources of on-line data, and digitalization together with automation will be required. To address these issues, this paper discusses optical emission spectroscopy (OES) as an on-line data acquisition method for industrial electric arc furnaces and ladle furnaces. The current state of the OES as a measurement method in the steel industry together with prospects of new applications are presented with examples based on the authors' prior research.