Japan’s Kyoei Steel Group introduces Tenova’s EFSOP® off-gas system as recognized technology for improving production and lowering cost through energy savings.
With excellent energy saving results from two completed EFSOP® project installations at Kanto Steel (Tsuchiura City, Ibaragi) and Kyoei Steel Hirakata Works (Hirakata City, Osaka), the Kyoei Steel Group, a leading EAF steelmaker in Japan, has confirmed the value that EFSOP® technology has added to their operations in the areas of real-time off-gas chemistry measurement and dynamic closed loop control of chemical energy.
EFSOP® technology has been provided by Tenova, through its company Tenova Goodfellow Inc., which is the leader in the design and supply of process control technology for the EAF and BOF markets. In a recent Top Management interview with Japan Metal Daily, Kyoei Steel Group President, Mitsuhiro Mori quoted “We will promote measures to cut costs. Centering around improving the production unit cost, we will aim to make our operations more competitive by cutting cost by 3%. A system to analyze the EAF off-gas and inject energies like O2 at an optimal timing has been introduced to Hirakata Works and Kanto Steel.
The system restrains waste combustion of the EAF and this becomes energy-saving. As data have been accumulated and effects started to be seen, we plan to introduce the system to all plants in the future.” At both Kanto Tsuchiura and Kyoei Hirakata, the EFSOP® system was successful in achieving economic savings which exceeded the project minimum performance savings that were established at the start of both projects. The EFSOP® system implementations have proven successful both for dynamically controlling the chemical energy package and as a beneficial tool for continuous monitoring and improvement of the overall EAF operations.
The Kyoei Steel Group is now focused on introducing EFSOP® technology across their domestic steel operations to realize their goal of cutting domestic cost by 3%, through improved production and energy savings. Both EFSOP® sales were a result of joint collaboration by Tenova Goodfellow Inc. (TGI) and Sumitomo Shoji Machinex Corp. (SMX) to bring breakthrough technology to the Japanese Steel Industry.