Prof Jon Willmott
Principal Investigator
University of Sheffield
Aim
This project aims to produce a new scientific instrument to help manufacturers reduce carbon emissions through better measurement of chemical impurities.
Initially, the project will focus on giving blast furnace operators instantaneous information on the levels of different chemical elements contained within their liquid iron. It will then become possible to instantaneously take action to bring the chemical balance back into optimum ratios. It is resource expensive and environmentally polluting to correct chemical balance problems later in the steelmaking process and sometimes leads to the iron having to be recycled entirely. With the blast furnace producing 500 tonnes of iron per hour and 1000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the lack of this online chemical sensing – and the ability to take action when imbalance occurs – is a serious problem for the environment. Yet, once known, it is possible to change the process parameters back to producing optimum iron.
