Revamped walking beam furnace with 80 percent fuel savings at ArcelorMittal Asturias

SMS group received the final acceptance certificate for the revamp of a timeworn walking beam furnace from ArcelorMittal Asturias, Spain, in October 2015. Significant energy savings could be realized due to the integration of a new combustion technology and the combustion optimization system SMS Prometheus^TM. “SMS group has shown a remarkable commitment in respecting the time schedule and the short planned furnace start-up, displacing at site a competent and proactive crew of skilled engineers”, describes Ramon Garcia Castaño, project manager of ArcelorMittal, the experience with SMS. The revamp has been carried out completely by SMS Meer SpA, Italy, a subsidiary of SMS group.

The project mainly consisted in the redesign and the turn-key reconstruction of the combustion equipment of the 150 tons per hour walking beam furnace in service to the wire rod mill. A special provision was the implementation of the possibility to combust also blast furnace gas along with natural gas, which was previously used solely. The new installation, completed in a rush of just one month of mill stoppage, is a complete technical success, resulting in fuel savings of up to 80 percent.

The combustion system is constantly managed by the newly developed optimization system SMS-Prometheus^TM. The system allows targeted improvements of the metallurgical properties, for example increased temperature uniformity or minimized negative effects such as steel decarburization or high scale formation. It also helps to reduce fuel consumption by adopting those heating strategies that minimize the temperature set points and yet guarantee the required final stock target temperature.

Walking-beam furnace of a wire rod mill with a throughput of 150 tons per hour has been upgraded at ArcelorMittal Asturias

Based on SMS Group information