Use of directly reduced iron as an alternative source of raw materials to scrap in electric arc furnace facilities

There has been a worldwide increase in the use of direct reduced iron products as raw materials for steel production by electrical arc furnaces in recent years. The limited supply of scrap and and the constraints resulting from the use of scrap during steel production are the main reasons for this increase. Chemical purity of ore-based metallic raw materials such as direct reduced iron (DRI) and hot briquetted iron (HBI) make these products very valuable for the production of clean steel. The purpose of this study is to investigate the advantages of the use of ore-based metallic products such as DRI and HBI as raw materials in steelmaking by electric arc furnace. Moreover, the benefit of clean steel production and production optimization by the use of ore-based metallic raw materials will also be discussed. In this study, heats produced by using 100% ore-based metallic raw materials in an electric arc furnace (EAF) and heats produced by using 100% scrap were investigated. The averages of electricity consumption, electrode consumption and production rate in billet steel production made with different raw materials were determined. In this context, although the electricity consumption in the production with ore-based raw materials, especially with DID, is slightly higher than the production with scrap, it has been determined that the electrode consumption is much lower, and the production speed is much higher. Therefore, the use of DID has had a reducing effect on the steel production cost in the EAF. In addition, it has been observed that the Cu, S and P ratios in the steels produced with DID and SBD are quite low compared to the steel produced with scrap. Therefore, the contribution of the use of ore-based metallic raw materials to clean steel production has been demonstrated.