In the field of steel smelting technology, electric arc furnace (EAF) and converter (BOF) are two mainstream production processes with significant differentiation characteristics.
What are the differences in the scope of applicable steel types?
Electric arc furnace steelmaking is dominated by the production of high-value-added alloy steel, especially good at smelting silicon-killed steel and silicon-aluminum-killed steel. This type of steel has excellent mechanical properties and processing characteristics and is suitable for high-end equipment manufacturing.
In comparison, converter production lines show obvious differentiation: billet production lines focus on bulk commodities such as construction steel and ordinary carbon structural steel; slab production lines focus on structural steel and low-carbon aluminum-killed steel to meet the deep processing needs of automotive plates, home appliance plates, etc.
How is production capacity stratified?
The output per unit time of conventional electric arc furnaces is generally lower than that of converters of the same capacity. The fundamental difference stems from the energy density limitation of the raw material smelting mode. However, it is worth noting that after adopting innovative technical equipment such as ultra-high power electric arc furnace (UHP-EAF), the production capacity of electric arc furnaces has broken through the traditional ceiling and achieved the same level of smelting efficiency as the converter production line.
Why are the process flows “different in length”?
The steelmaking process can be broken down into a special system of components that can realize the steelmaking process. The converter steelmaking process must be preceded by the four links of ore dressing, sintering, coking, and ironmaking. Electric furnace steelmaking only requires scrap steel and auxiliary materials as a guarantee, which reduces at least 3 links compared to the converter, so it is called short-process steelmaking.
How are environmental protection benefits reflected?
The converter system can only consume about one-third of the scrap steel, while the electric arc furnace can use 100% scrap steel as raw material. This not only solves the problem of recycling more than 100 million tons of scrap steel each year in the world, but also avoids the risk of land pollution caused by landfill treatment. Data from the International Iron and Steel Association shows that the CO2 emissions of short-process steelmaking are much lower than the long process, and the environmental protection advantages are significant.
What key parameters should be considered in investment decisions?
- Capital expenditure: The construction cost of the electric arc furnace production line is 30%-35% lower than that of the converter with the same capacity
- Construction period: The commissioning speed of the electric arc furnace project is 40%-50% faster than that of the converter
- Operation cost: Because the price of scrap steel is higher than that of molten iron, the cost of electric arc furnace per ton of steel is 200-500 yuan higher
- Land occupation: The floor area of the electric arc furnace factory is reduced by about 25%-40%
- Policy orientation: More and more countries in the world have implemented carbon tax exemption policies for short-process steelmaking
