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Applied Energy 87 (2010) 21562163

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Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

An MILP model for optimization of byproduct gases in the integrated iron


and steel plant
Haining Kong *, Ershi Qi, Hui Li, Gang Li, Xing Zhang
School of Industrial Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In iron and steel industry, byproduct gases are important energy. Therefore it is signicant to optimize
Received 21 July 2009 byproduct gas distribution to achieve total cost reduction. In this paper, a dynamic mixed integer linear
Received in revised form 25 November 2009 programming (MILP) model for multi-period optimization of byproduct gases is used to optimize byprod-
Accepted 25 November 2009
uct gas distribution. Compared with the previous optimization model, the proposed model simulta-
neously optimizes the distribution of byproduct gases in byproduct gas system, cogeneration system
and iron- and steel-making system. Case study shows that the proposed model nds the optimal solution
Keywords:
in terms of total cost reduction.
Iron and steel industry
MILP
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Byproduct gas distribution
Scheduling

1. Introduction optimally allocate the resource and achieved a good result. A math-
ematical model was formulated by Kim et al. [1], in which the
As one of the fundamental pillar industries in China, the iron objective is to minimize total cost over multi-period. Kim et al.
and steel industry has developed rapidly in recent years. Mean- [11] suggested an optimization model for byproduct gases and pre-
while, it is an energy-intensive industry, whose energy cost ac- sented an optimal energy supply to meet the carrying demands
counts for 20% of the iron- and steel-making processs total and unit price changes. They [12] further considered the penalty
operation cost [1]. Therefore, efcient use of energy is crucial for cost for on/off status of burners in boilers, which were proved to
reducing total operation cost. Byproduct gases, which are produced result in a lower cost in their research. All the previous researches
during the production of iron and steel without additional cost, are hypothesized that the amount of byproduct gases consumed in the
important energy sources to meet energy needs of the process of iron- and steel-making process are all decided beforehand, i.e. they
making iron and steel. Furthermore, these byproduct gases can ignored the optimization of byproduct gases in the iron- and steel-
be converted into other forms of energy, such as electricity and making process. They only optimized the residuals of byproduct
steam. Thus, optimization of byproduct gases has drawn more gases (total amount of byproduct gases produced minus the
and more attention by the iron and steel industry in recent years. amount of byproduct gases consumed in the iron- and steel-mak-
In some iron and steel plants, there are often imbalances be- ing process) in the gasholders and boilers. Thus the previous re-
tween the amount of byproduct gases produced and consumed. searches may have obtained imprecise results.
When the amount of gases produced is greater than that is con- In this paper, an improved MILP model of byproduct gases in
sumed, it will cause an excess, and when the opposite occurs, it the iron and steel industry is established. The focus is on reducing
will cause a shortage. Such imbalance will result in increase in total operation cost in the entire energy system for multi-period
operation cost, pollution to the environment, and even a threat operation through optimizing byproduct gas distribution in an
to production safety [2]. Therefore, it is a critical issue to optimize integrated iron and steel plant. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis
the operation process to prevent the loss of byproduct gases. is presented. In the case study, given six time periods with varying
Much research efforts on production planning in the iron and demands of the system, the model would in turn offer the optimal
steel industry have been done [38]. However, little is focused operation conditions to meet demands at the lowest cost.
on the optimization of byproduct gases. Akimoto et al. [9] brought
MILP to optimize byproduct gases in the iron and steel industry for 2. Problem statement
the rst time. Sinha et al. [10] applied MILP model in Tata Steel to
Fig. 1 shows the schematic view of the iron- and steel-making
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 22 2740 5100. process. During this process, three kinds of byproduct gases are
E-mail address: konghaining@hotmail.com (H. Kong). produced. They are blast furnace gas (BFG) produced from a blast

0306-2619/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2009.11.031
H. Kong et al. / Applied Energy 87 (2010) 21562163 2157

Nomenclature

Sets W3s penalty weight for three burners simultaneously


B set of boilers switching in the same boiler (yuan/switching)
T set of turbines W Dem
BFG heat demand of BFG in production system (kJ/h)
G set of byproduct gases (BFG, COG, DLG) W Dem heat demand of COG in production system (kJ/h)
COG
i boiler (i = 1, 2, . . . ,B)
W Dem
LDG heat demand of LDG in production system (kJ/h)
j turbine (j = 1, 2, . . . ,T)
l compressor (l = 1, 2, . . . ,C)
gbi efciency of boiler i
t period (t = 1, 2, . . . ,P) gtb
j efciency of turbine j

Parameters Variables
Celec unit cost of electricity (yuan/kW h) Et electricity generation at time t (kW)
COil unit cost of fuel oil (yuan/t) F PSD
i;t ow rate of process steam demand of boiler i at time t
EDem electricity demand (kW h) (nm3/h)
Min;BFG
F i;t minimum ow rate of BFG into single-consuming users FG,gen,t amount of byproduct gas G generated at time t (nm3/h)
at time t (nm3/h) FG,con,t amount of byproduct gas G consumed at time t (nm3/h)
F Max;BFG maximum ow rate of BFG into single-consuming users
b
fi;t amount of byproduct gases into boiler b at time t (nm3/h)
i;t
at time t (nm3/h) fBFG,t ow rate of BFG in single-consuming users at time t
Min;COG
F i;t minimum ow rate of COG into single-consuming users (nm3/h)
at time t (nm3/h) fCOG,t ow rate of COG in single-consuming users at time t
F Max;COG maximum ow rate of COG into single-consuming users (nm3/h)
i;t
at time t (nm3/h) fLDG,t ow rate of LDG in single-consuming users at time t
Min;LDG
F i;t minimum ow rate of LDG into single-consuming users (nm3/h)
BFG
at time t (nm3/h) fq;t ow rate of BFG in mixed-consuming users at time t
F Max;LDG maximum ow rate of LDG into single-consuming users (nm3/h)
i;t COG
at time t (nm3/h) fq;t ow rate of COG in mixed-consuming users at time t
Min;b
F i;t minimum ow rate of byproduct gas G into boiler i at (nm3/h)
LDG
time t (nm3/h) fq;t ow rate of LDG in mixed-consuming users at time t
F Max;b maximum ow rate of byproduct gas G into boiler i at (nm3/h)
i;t
time t (nm3/h) fi;tOil ow rate of oil used in boiler i at time t (nm3/h)
Min;stm
F i;t minimum ow rate of steam produced by boiler i at
wat
fi;t ow rate of water used in boiler i at time t (nm3/h)
time t (nm3/h) stm
fi;t ow rate of steam produced from boiler i at time t (nm3/h)
F Max;stm
i;t
maximum ow rate of steam produced by boiler i at fi;tps ow rate of process steam produced from boiler i at
time t (nm3/h) time t (nm3/h)
Min;tb
F i;t minimum ow rate of steam into turbine produced by fi;ttb ow rate of steam into turbine from boiler i at time t
boiler i at time t (nm3/h) (nm3/h)
F Max;tb
i;t
maximum ow rate of steam into turbine produced by nGi;t number of operation burners at boiler i at time t
boiler i at time t (nm3/h)
Min;com DnGi;t change of number of operating burners at boiler i from
F l;t minimum ow rate of steam into compressor l at time t
time t to t + 1
(nm3/h)
pwgen,j,t power generation at turbine j at time t (kJ/h)
F Max;com
l;t
maximum ow rate of steam into compressor l at time t

(nm3/h) swGi;t number of G gas burner turn on at boiler i at time t



F Min
q;t minimum ow rate of steam into mixed-consuming swGi;t number of G gas burner turn off at boiler i at time t
users at time t (nm3/h) sGHH;t amount of gas G emission at gasholder at time t (nm3/h)
F Max
q;t maximum ow rate of steam into mixed-consuming sGd ;t deviation above normal amount of gas G at time t (nm3/h)
users at time t (nm3/h)
sGd ;t deviation below normal amount of gas G at time t (nm3/h)
GHGHH upper bound of byproduct gas G (nm3)
GHGLL lower bound of byproduct gas G (nm3) Binary integer variables
GHGN normal amount of byproduct gas G (nm3)  
HBFG heat value of BFG (kJ/nm3) G
ibn1;i;t
1 if one G gas burner turn on at boiler i at time t
HCOG heat value of COG (kJ/nm3) 0 else
 
HLDG heat value of LDG (kJ/nm3) G 1 if two G gas burners turn on at boiler i at time t
ibn2;i;t
HGP heat value of byproduct gas G (kJ/nm3) 0 else
 
HOil
P heat value of fuel oil (kJ/nm3) G 1 if three G gas burners turn on at boiler i at time t
ibn3;i;t
Hstm enthalpy of steam produced at boiler i at time t (kJ/nm3) 0 else
i;t  
Hwat
i;t enthalpy of water used at boiler i at time t (kJ/nm3) ibn1;i;t
G 1 if one G gas burner turn off at boiler i at time t
MGi load change unit amount of byproduct gas G burner in 0 else
 
boiler i (nm3/h) ibn2;i;t
G 1 if two G gas burners turn off at boiler i at time t
Dt time period (min) 0 else
 
WG penalty weight for deviation of gasholders (yuan/nm3) G 1
if three G gas burners turn off at boiler i at time t
ibn3;i;t
W GSW penalty weight for burners switching (yuan/switching) 0
else
 
W FO
i;t penalty weight for changing fuel oil (yuan/nm3) yOil
1 if fuel oil change at boiler i at time t
i;t 0 else
2s
W penalty weight for two burners simultaneously switch-
ing in the same boiler (yuan/switching)
2158 H. Kong et al. / Applied Energy 87 (2010) 21562163

Ore fines In a byproduct gas system, byproduct gases are stored in gashold-
Coal Fuel ers. In a cogeneration system, byproduct gases are transported to
Coke Plant Sintering boilers in the power plant to produce steam, which is then con-
Limestone
verted into electricity in turbines. In an iron- and steel-making sys-
tem, byproduct gases are produced and consumed. The
distribution of byproduct gases in an iron- and steel-making sys-
Coke Sinter tem is shown in Fig. 3. The gure shows that some byproduct gases
Blast users are single-consuming users, who consume one xed kind of
Furnace Limestone, Pellets
gas. The other kind is mixed-consuming users. They consume
mixed byproduct gases at one time, as long as mixed byproduct
Slag gases satisfy the requirements for heat values.
Hot Iron
The amount of byproduct gases generated and consumed
should be equal in order to guarantee the safety of the plant and
Ore, Scrap
Basic Oxygen stability of production. Nevertheless, some byproduct gases are
Steel Furnace Electricity
generated irregularly; some uncertain factors, e.g., equipment
Molten Steel
maintenance, also affect gas consumption. Therefore there is a
temporary imbalance between the amount of gas generated and
consumed. The byproduct gasholders are built to alleviate this
Casting
problem, adjusting the gas supply of users by storing excessive
gases into gasholders. The excessive gases stored will be used in
the future when shortage of byproduct gases occurs. However, be-
Rolling and cause of the limited capacity of gasholders, temporary excess or
Finishing shortage of byproduct gases still can not be completely resolved.
Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the process to prevent the
loss of byproduct gases by establishing a suitable model.
Ingots / Semi finished shapes / Plate and Strip
3. Method
Fig. 1. Schematic view of a simple iron and steel process.
The method is based on MILP. The MILP model has been devel-
oped from Method for analysis of INDustrial energy systems
furnace when producing hot metal; coke oven gas (COG) from a (MIND) that has been developed to solve the optimization problem
coke oven when producing coke; and LinzeDonawitz gas (LDG) for the iron and steel industry [1316]. The model is implemented
from the process of producing steel at a LinzeDonawitz (LD) con- in LINGO software. LINGO is a software for solving optimization
verter. The simplied byproduct gases ow in an iron and steel problems developed by Lindo System, Inc., USA. It is a comprehen-
plant is shown in Fig. 2. In this paper, the energy system of an iron sive tool designed to make building and solving linear, nonlinear
and steel plant is mainly composed of three parts: byproduct gas and integer optimization models faster, easier and more efcient.
system, cogeneration system and iron- and steel-making system. LINGO provides a completely integrated package that includes a

Byproduct gases
demand

Byproduct
gas system
Coke oven Electricity
COG Boiler 1 TB1
demand

COG
Holder
Boiler 2 TB2
Basic oxygen Iron and steel
LDG
steel furnace making system
Cogeneration
system
LDG

Blast furnace BFG TBN Steam demand


Boiler N

BFG
Holder

Fig. 2. Simplied byproduct gases ow in iron and steel process.


H. Kong et al. / Applied Energy 87 (2010) 21562163 2159

Rotating Kiln

Sintering Furnace

Single-consuming Ladle heater


users of COG
1 , 2ndcoke oven
st

Others

Single-consuming Plate rolling mills


users of LDG

Byproduct gas
consumption in Hot stoves
making of iron and
steel process Single-consuming 3rd, 4th coke oven
users of BFG
Lime furnace

Wire rod rolling mills

Hot strip mills


Mixed-consuming
users Seamless tube

Others

Fig. 3. The ow network of byproduct gases in iron- and steel-making system.

powerful language for expressing optimization models, a full fea- The rst term in the function represents purchased oil consumption
tured environment for building and editing problems, and a set cost for all the boilers. The second term is penalty cost for byproduct
of fast built-in solvers. gas shortage (when the gas amount is lower than the lower bound),
To be brief, the optimization scheduling of byproduct gases in emission (when gas amount is higher than the upper bound) and
this paper mainly includes four steps: deviation from normal holder level. The third term is the penalty
when burners are starting up or shutting down. The forth term is also
 First, the real system is delimited; important processes are iden- penalty imposed when more than one burner in one boiler are start-
tied; reasonable simplications are introduced, in order to ing up or shutting down simultaneously. The fth term represents
describe the system mathematically. the penalty for changing oil source between two periods. The sixth
 Second, the optimization model is created, the objective func- term is the benet from surplus electricity produced in power plant.
tion and constraints are both presented.
 Third, the appropriate optimization routine is applied. In this 4.2. Constraints
study, a software LINGO is used to solve the MILP problem.
 Forth, the model is validated through case study and the results 4.2.1. Material balances for byproduct gases
are analyzed.
X
B
V G;t V G;t1 F G;gen;t  F G;con;t Dt  Dfi;tG 2
i
4. Modelled system X
kx X
ky X
kz m 
X 
BFG COG LDG
F G;con;t fCOG;t fLDG;t fBFG;t fq;t fq;t fq;t 3
4.1. Objective function i1

i1

i1 q1

Dfi;tG MGi nGi;t  nGi;t1 Dt 4


The objective function is to minimize total operation cost dur-
ing the planning horizon P, including minimizing penalty cost, oil fi;tstm fi;tps fi;ttb 5
purchasing cost, and maximizing the electricity benet. Penalty
VG,t is the amount of byproduct gases in gasholders at time t, which
cost is consisted of penalty for emission or shortage of byproduct
is equal to the sum of the amount of byproduct gases at time t  1,
gases, and deviation from normal gasholder levels. Besides, the
VG,t1, and the difference between generation and consumption of
penalty costs for burners switching and fuel load changing in the
byproduct gases in the iron- and steel-making system during time
boilers are imposed to ensure a stable production process.
Dt, minus the amount of byproduct gas load change at boilers dur-
ing time Dt. FG,con,t, decided beforehand in the previous researches,
n P X
X B P X
X  2
Y Min C Oil fi;tOil W G V G;t  GHGN is regarded as a variable in this paper. It equals to the sum of the
t1 i1 t1 G amount of byproduct gases consumed in single-consuming users
X
P X
B X X
P X
B and mixed-consuming users in iron- and steel-making system.
W GSW DnGi;t Dfi;tG represents gas load change of byproduct gas G in boiler i from
t1 i1 G t1 i1 time t  1 to t. The produced steam from boilers is equal to the
Xh 
G G
 
G G
i
 W 2s ibn2;i;t ibn2;i;t W 3s ibn3;i;t ibn3;i;t sum of process steam and inlet to turbines, as shown in Eq. (5).
G
" !#
P X
X B
elec
X
P
4.2.2. Energy balance for utilities
W Oil Oil
i;t yi;t  C Et  EDem 1 It is assumed that each boiler and turbine has different ef-
t1 i1 t1
ciency and is constant during time P. thus, the energy balance
2160 H. Kong et al. / Applied Energy 87 (2010) 21562163

can be described as follows; where the total amount of energy to 4.2.7. Material and energy constraints for mixed-consuming users
each boiler multiplied its efciency is equal to the total enthalpy For any mixed-consuming user q, material constraint (23) and
change from water to steam. To turbines, the electricity generation energy constraint (24) should be satised.
is equal to the enthalpy multiplied by turbine efciencies. X
X Hstm stm wat wat F Min
q;t 6
G
fq;t 6 F Max 23
i;t fi;t  H i;t fi;t
q;t
fi;tG HGP fi;tOil HOil 6 X G Dem
P G
g b
i
fq;t H P W q;t 24
G
pwgen;j;t fi;ttb Hstm
i;t g tb
j 7
4.2.8. Other equations
4.2.3. Operation constraints of equipments 

Boilers, turbines and compressors have their own operation DnGi;t nGi;t  nGi;t1 swGi;t swGi;t 25

ranges, which should be conformed during the process, as shown G G G
swGi;t ibn1;i;t ibn2;i;t ibn3;i;t 26
in Eqs. (8)(10), respectively. Besides, each boiler has its upper  G G G
and lower limits for byproduct gases inlet to keep working, as de- swGi;t ibn1;i;t ibn2;i;t ibn3;i;t 27

scribed in Eq. (11). swGi;t ; swGi;t P0 28
F Min;stm
i;t 6 fi;tstm 6 F Max;stm
i;t 8
Eqs. (25)(28) represent the relationship of burners switching in the
F Min;tb
i;t 6 fi;ttb 6 F Max;tb
i;t 9 boilers. Change of the number of operating burner at boiler i, DnGi;t ,

F Min;t;com
l;t 6 fl;tcom 6 F Max;com
l;t 10 equals to the sum of swGi;t and swGi;t . swGi;t represents the number
of turn on at time t, which equals to the sum of the number of
F Min;b
i;t 6 fi;tb 6 F Max;b
i;t 11
one burner, two and three burners turn-on status during the same
G G G
period, which are expressed as ibn1;i;t ; ibn2;i;t and ibn3;i;t , respectively.
G G G
4.2.4. Operation constraint of gasholders ibn1;i;t ; ibn2;i;t and ibn3;i;t are binary variables. When the variables
have values of 1, this means burners switching happen.
GHGLL 6 SGt 6 GHGHH sGHH;t 12
SGT  GHGN sGd ;t  sGd ;t 13 5. Case study presentation
sGHH;t ; sGd ;t ; sGd ;t P 0 14
A case study was performed to illustrate the proposed MILP
The gasholders also have desired operating range. From the model in a small-sized iron and steel plant in China. The annual
above equations, it is obvious that holder booster trip is forbidden turnover at the plant is approximately 34.2 billion yuan. The plant
as a constraint because of a huge economic loss. currently produces about 4 million tons of steel annually. The plant
consists of eight blast furnaces when producing hot metal; four
4.2.5. Energy demand satisfaction constraints coke ovens, ve basic oxygen furnaces, a BLG gasholder, a COG gas-
The generated steam from boilers, electricity from turbines at holder, and a LDG gasholder respectively. There are three boilers
each period has to meet the energy demands, which are shown and three turbines in the cogeneration system.
in Eqs. (15) and (16). The planning period consists six time periods; each is 15 min in
fi;tps P F PSD
i;t 15 length. The number of time steps is chosen randomly to explain to
X
T X the readers how to apply the proposed model to optimize a real
pwgen;j;t P EDem 16 plant. The time step length of 15 min corresponds to the steel plant
j1 G actual measuring period. Table 1 shows the capacity of gasholders.
The efciency of each piece of equipment is shown in Table 2.
Table 3 represents the consumption ranges of boilers for different
4.2.6. Material and energy constraints for single-consuming users
gases. Heating values of byproduct gases, penalty values for objec-
Assuming that in iron- and steel-making system, COG is con-
tive function and unit cost of utilities are shown in Table 46
sumed in kx users; LDG is consumed in ky users and BFG is con-
respectively. The penalty value data are determined through con-
sumed in kz users. Therefore, the ow rate of each kind of gas
tinuous discussion with representatives from the plant to ensure
should satisfy the following constraints (17)(19).
the validity of the model. The unit costs are based on current en-
X
kx X
kx
ergy prices in China. Fig. 4 shows process steam and electricity de-
F Min;COG
i 6 fCOG 6 F Max;COG
i 17
i1 i1
mand during all the periods. Table 7 shows the total amount of
X
ky X
ky byproduct gases produced in the planning period.
F Min;LDG
i 6 fLDG 6 F Max;LDG
i 18
i1 i1
Table 1
X
kz X
kz
F Min;BFG
i 6 fBFG 6 F Max;BFG
i 19 Capacity bound of byproduct gasholders.
i1 i1 COG BFG LDG
Besides, as shown in Eqs. (20)(22), the heat value should sat- Lower bound (nm3) 60,000 50,000 40,000
isfy the users demand in iron- and steel-making system. Normal (nm3) 90,000 100,000 70,000
Upper bound (nm3) 120,000 150,000 100,000
X
kx
fCOG HCOG P W Dem
COG 20
i1
Table 2
X
ky
fLDG HLDG P W Dem
LDG 21 Efciencies of each piece of equipment.
i1 1 2 3
X
kz
fBFG HBFG P W Dem
BFG 22 Boilers 0.8 0.85 0.83
Turbines 0.82 0.8 0.83
i1
H. Kong et al. / Applied Energy 87 (2010) 21562163 2161

Table 3 The case study was modeled with Lingo, and was implemented
Consumption ranges for byproduct gases of boilers. on a Pentium IV 2.6 GHz with 512 MB RAM. The MILP problem
Boiler 1 Boiler 2 Boiler 3 contains 316 continuous variables, 76 binary variables and 392
Maximization for COG (nm /h) 3
9000 9000 9000 constraints. The results were obtained within 2s.
Minimization for COG (nm3/h) 0 0 0
Maximization for BFG (nm3/h) 90,000 90,000 90,000
Minimization for BFG (nm3/h) 0 0 0 6. Results
Maximization for LDG (nm3/h) 4800 4800 4800
Minimization for LDG (nm3/h) 0 0 0
The optimization results during the six periods are obtained. Ta-
ble 810 present the distributions of COG, BFG and LDG in the iron-
and steel-making system, respectively. The amounts of byproduct
Table 4 gases in boilers are shown in Table 11. Fig. 5 represents the number
Heating values of byproduct gases (MJ/m3).
of burners turned on/off. As it can be seen in the gure, the pro-
Byproduct gases Heating values posed method only performs four switching. In the rst period,
COG 18 the COG burner of boiler 2 is turned on and in the second period,
LDG 8 the BFG burner of boiler 2 is turned on. In the third period, LDG
BFG 3 burner of boiler 1 is turned off and in the forth period; LDG burner
of boiler 4 is turned off. Fig. 6 shows the optimized gas amount in
the gasholders. It indicates the amounts of three kinds of byprod-
Table 5 uct gases uctuate slightly during the planning period.
Penalty value for objective function (yuan). The scheduling model by previous researchers used in the plant
Penalty value only considered byproduct gas trade-off between boilers and
gasholders. It did not consider byproduct gas distribution in the
Change of fuel oil 500
Deviation of byproduct gas in holders 5 Table 8
Penalty for burners on/off 400 The distribution of COG in the iron- and steel-making system (km3).
Penalty for two burners on/off simultaneously 100
Penalty for three burners on/off simultaneously 200 Period Rotating Sintering Ladle 1st, 2nd Others Mixed
kiln furnace heater coke oven gas
1 2.0 1.5 1.3 3.6 0.8 1.5
2 2.0 1.5 1.5 3.5 1.1 1.4
Table 6
3 2.0 1.5 1.5 3.6 0.5 1.5
Unit cost of utilities.
4 2.0 1.5 1.3 3.6 0.6 1.6
Fuel oil Electricity Standard coal 5 2.0 1.5 1.4 3.6 0.8 1.5
(yuan/t) (yuan/kW h) (yuan/t) 6 2.0 1.5 1.4 3.6 0.8 1.3

Unit cost 3000 1 500

Table 9
90 220 The distribution of BFG in the iron- and steel-making system (km3).

Period Hot stoves 3rd, 4th coke oven Lime furnace Mixed gas
80 210 1 53.2 17.4 3.0 7.0
Electricity demand (MW)

2 53.5 17.4 3.2 6.5


Steam demand (t/h)

70 200 3 53.2 17.4 3.0 6.8


4 53.0 17.4 3.2 7.0
5 53.2 17.4 3.2 7.2
60 190 6 53.0 17.4 3.0 6.6

50 180
Table 10
40 170 The distribution of LDG in the iron- and steel-making system (km3).

Period Plate rolling mills Mixed gas


30 160 1 2.0 6.7
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 2 2.0 7.3
Time (period) 3 2.0 5.5
Steam demand
4 2.0 5.8
Electricity demand 5 2.0 5.1
6 2.0 7.5
Fig. 4. Process steam and electricity demand.

Table 7 Table 11
The total amount of byproduct gases produced in the planning period (km3). The amount of byproduct gases in the boilers (km3).

Period COG BFG LDG Period COG BFG LDG


1 16.1 133 11.4 1 5.3 52.5 2.6
2 15.3 140 13.2 2 5.0 60 2.6
3 16.0 139 9.7 3 5.0 59 2.2
4 15.6 139 7.5 4 5.2 58 1.8
5 15.9 140 10.8 5 5.3 59 1.8
6 15.5 136 9.3 6 5.3 57 1.9
2162 H. Kong et al. / Applied Energy 87 (2010) 21562163

Table 12
The total cost comparison of two models (yuan).
Boiler 2 COG burner
Previous Proposed
Boiler 2 BFG burner
Byproduct gases emission 0 0
Holder booster trip penalty 0 0
Penalty for gas deviation 7065 6795
By product gas burner switching

Cost of fuel oil 0 0


Penalty for switching burners 3600 3200
Penalty for change of fuel oil 0 0
Electricity benet 1250 1290
Total cost 9415 8705

Turn on

0.9 yuan/kW h to 1.2 yuan/kW h, the optimal solution will be the


same. However, the optimization result is not highly dependent
on the fuel oil price. If fuel oil price is higher than 1500 yuan/t,
Turn off the optimal solution remains the same in the model.

7. Conclusions
Boiler 1 LDG burner

Boiler 4 LDG burner The system of byproduct gases in the iron and steel industry is
complex. To achieve a lower operation cost, it is important to take
the entire system into account in order to avoid sub-optimal oper-
ations. In this paper, an MILP model for multi-period optimization
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 of byproduct gases in the iron and steel industry is proposed. Com-
Time (period) pared with the previous model, the proposed model optimized the
distribution of byproduct gases in byproduct gas system, cogenera-
Fig. 5. Number of burners turned on/off.
tion system and iron- and steel-making system. As a result, the
model was found to optimize the byproduct gases distribution in
the integrated iron and steel plant. The case study shows the pro-
posed method performs well to minimize total cost. Compared
110 with the previous model, 7.5% of the total cost is reduced. The sen-
sitivity analyses of the prices of electricity and fuel oil are also
conducted.
Gas amount in gasholders (km3)

100 BFG The proposed method is useful and it provides management


with important information for byproduct gas scheduling. The re-
COG sult is reliable and practical in the plant. However, it was per-
90
formed successfully in only one actual plant. As a result, further
researches are needed to apply this model into other plants in Chi-
80 na to verify its validity and to nd its limitations.

LDG References
70

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