Ladle Metallurgy: Energy Consumption Statistics

Equipment
Combustion Technology
Energy Consumption
Process Description
R&D Trends

The transformer capacities of ladle metallurgy stations are reported in the AISE Directory of Iron and Steel Plants. Capacities range from 10-50 Mva. For example, all of the U.S. Steel Company integrated mills have ladle metallurgy stations with arc heating in the range of 30-35 Mva. Since ladle metallurgy is necessarily integrated with the primary steelmaking process, be it BOP or EAF, the load factor on the process would be much less than that for an EAF because the secondary refining is achieved in less time. Many more mills use vacuum degassing stations and other treatments like AOD that rely on superheat from the primary steelmaking process to cover heat losses during subsequent refining.

Directory of Iron and Steel Plants 1995, Association of Iron and Steel Engineers, Pittsburgh, PA., 1995