Optical emission spectroscopy in electric arc furnaces and ladle furnaces:from laboratory to industrial applications

Abstract Steel is one of the most recycled materials in the world, and electric arc furnaces (EAFs) together with ladle furnaces (LFs) are the main units to process the recycled scrap metal [1]. As the customer steel recycling rate, furnace capacities, and the electricity-based steelmaking overall are expected to increase, the real-time response of the analysis system becomes more and more important. One promising on-line measurement tool for EAFs and LFs that can withstand the furnace conditions is optical emission spectroscopy (OES). In this paper, the recent experimental OES research for EAFs and LFs is reviewed. The research includes a small-scale furnace (University of Oulu, Finland), a pilot-scale furnace (RWTH Aachen University, IOB, Germany), and industrial furnaces (Deutsche Edelstahlwerke, Germany)