Reduced energy consumption by increased reduction volume

Metallproduserende industri i Norge bidrar til eksportinntekter, verdiøkning av energi og høyteknologisk kunnskap. En viktig del av metallene som produseres i Norge er ferrolegeringer og silisium. Denne industrien foredler en stor del av Norges kraftproduksjon. Det er derfor en kontinuerlig målsetning å minke kraftforbruket per tonn metall som produseres. Dette vil i de fleste tilfeller også redusere CO2 utslippet. Dette prosjektet vil redusere kraftforbruket ved å få mer kunnskap om materialer som påvirker masse-og energi-transport i ovnene. Dette kan være akkumulering av uønskede materialer i ovnene eller råmaterialer som har stor effekt på massetransporten. Forskningsparnerne i prosjektet er NTNU og SINTEF, og industripartnerne er Elkem AS, Eramet Norway AS, Finnfjord AS og Wacker Chemicals Norway AS. Rekrutteing til denne industrien er viktig og prosjektet vil inkludere MSc studenter, en PhD kandidat og en PostDoc forsker.

The silicon and ferroalloy producers in Norway transforms around 7 TWh per year to Norwegian welfare through employment, technology and export. Though this industry is in the technological and environmental forefront globally, a continues improvement is necessary to remain in that position. The goal of this project is to reduce the energy consumption and CO2 emissions by increasing the knowledge of unwanted accumulations in the Submerged Arc Furnace where the metal is produced. Unwanted accumulations is materials that over time has been accumulated and effects the mass flows, the gas flows, and the electric energy distribution. This is mainly oxide materials like liquid slag, carbide banks and condensed material produced from gases. The activities in this project will focus on how they are formed, the properties of the accumulated materials and the effect it has on the material- and gas- flows as well as electrical current paths. This will mainly be studied through experimental lab scale experiments in conjugation with thermodynamic and kinetic modelling. Computational Fluid Dynamic modelling will be used to describe the metal and slag flow in the furnaces and industrial measurement campaigns will also be incorporated. This will be a part of the close interaction between the research partners and the industry, as the industry is participating in the governance as well as participating in the reference groups of the work packages. The research partners will be NTNU and SINTEF. There will however be a cooperation with national and international partners through related projects, partners like Norce and MINTEK, and universities in Japan, China, South Africa and Island. In this project the recruitment base for this industry will be strengthen by the education of 1 PhD, 1 Postdoc and MSc-students working in the project.