Tenova recently received the final acceptance certificate for the modernization of a walking beam furnace at thyssenkrupp Steel’s Bruckhausen Plant in Duisburg, Germany. Thermal Processing discussed the importance of the furnace upgrade with Tenova Italimpianti product line director for reheating, Marcello Tomolillo.
Tenova Italimpianti recently modernized the walking beam furnace for high-quality electrical steel strip production. Why was this modernization necessary?
This modernization was necessary due to a bottleneck in the furnace. The full line was originally designed for a certain level of productivity, but the furnace was bottlenecked in that productivity and wasn’t performing in terms of fuel consumption and temperature uniformity of the product. Those were the main drivers of our project.
The modernization of the furnace has been carried out by Tenova Italimpianti. What is the brand known for?
Tenova is a leading developer and provider of sustainable solutions for the green transition of the metals industry, and Tenova Italimpianti is one of its brands for the technologies of reheating, heat treatment, strip processing, and acid regeneration plants. Tenova Italimpianti is the leading technology and equipment supplier for the world of industrial furnaces, leveraging on the proprietary in-house expertise in the production of best-in-class burner technologies since the 1960s, combining the company’s engineering know-how and advanced knowledge of the combustion field. It designs and installs a wide variety of ferrous and non-ferrous reheating furnaces for processing slabs, billets, blooms, beam blanks and rounds, furnaces for petroleum coke, carbon products, and furnaces for direct reduced iron, as well as for metal reclamation and waste oxide recycling. Moreover, its portfolio of technologies includes different types of processing lines for a broad range of materials and can provide turn-key HCl regeneration plants, both with spray roaster and fluidized bed technology.
For new plants as well as for revamping and upgrading, Tenova Italimpianti can carry out tailor-made projects and provide customers with such supplies and services as engineering, personal training, know-how transfer, and technical and operational assistance.
What benefits does this modernized furnace bring?
It brings these key benefits: maximum production capability, increased quality of the electrical steel strip, a crucial material for the energy transition, and reduced specific consumption.
Our equipment ensures the maximum production of high-quality electrical steel strips, also setting new energy utilization and efficiency benchmarks, thanks to an improved refractory lining design and an optimized fixed and walking beam system.
These lead to a more uniform temperature distribution along the entire slab length, reducing temperature loss in the slab’s center and minimizing contact points (rails) between the slabs and the fixed and walking beam system. This also prevents surface defects and improves the quality of the product.
How does the furnace set new energy utilization and efficiency benchmarks?
As mentioned, temperature uniformity improved and consumption was reduced, enhancing the overall performance and sustainability of the furnace. This was achieved by modifying the combusting systems, the layout of the support of the charge in the furnace (a system transporting the slabs inside the furnace), and the improved refractory lining design I spoke about earlier.
What makes the unit’s UltralowNOx burners state-of-the-art?
Our burners use combustion technologies that reduce the maximum flame temperature inside the furnace. Thanks to this reduction, the NOx production inside the combustion process is also reduced.
Tenova Italimpianti burners have always been designed according to the requirements of each individual project, with the innovation that distinguishes this brand.
What upgraded safety systems are incorporated into this furnace?
It goes without saying that all modifications we applied in this furnace are compliant with safety rules. In this regard, we needed to provide additional field instrumentation in the zones of the furnace we modified. Moreover, we modified the existing control system, implementing all the safety logic according to the latest safety standards.
How is the furnace performing so far?
Very well – the furnace modernization has led to an increase in the production of high-quality materials while simultaneously reducing specific consumption. Before we started the upgrade, we did a detailed study to evaluate what could be the potential of the furnace. We showed the customer that, by applying innovative technologies, they could get much more than what they had. That was the main key to our success. We applied the know-how from our technology portfolio, and, without changing the size of the furnace, we reached a great final result. Tenova has built a long-standing, successful partnership with thyssenkrupp as attested by many projects, and this modernization is just another step in our co-operation.
More info www.tenova.com
