Missouri S&T Using Grant to Improve EAF Steelmaking

March 28, 2023

A research team at the Missouri University of Science and Technology will be using a $2 million government grant to improve the operating efficiency of electric-arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking.

The Missouri S&T research team is being led by Dr. Ronald O’Malley, the F. Kenneth Iverson Endowed Chair of Steelmaking Technologies and director of the Kent D. Peaslee Steel Manufacturing Research Center at the university.

“We are working toward implementing a next-generation dynamic control system for the EAF so we can optimize EAF operating efficiency under changing input conditions using new sensor systems,” O’Malley explained.

“In basic terms, the fiber optic system will provide a whole new set of tools for EAF optimization,” O’Malley said. “We will be able to better examine the condition of the EAF and the impact of operating variables on the process in real time to provide feedback to the operator and improve energy efficiency, operating cost, and yield.”

This $2 million grant from the US Department of Energy is part of a larger three-part project. The first two phases were funded by another $2 million and a third phase will utilize over $1 million.

US Steel’s Big River Steel in Osceola, Ark., and Commercial Metals Co.’s facility in Birmingham, Ala., are the two partner steel plants in which new sensor and control module technology developed via grant will be installed.

Additional companies participating in the Missouri S&T research include Nucor, Gerdau, Linde, and CIX, as well as Arizona State University.

By Laura Miller, laura@steelmarketupdate.com

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. She has held a variety of positions within the steel industry since 2007, including reporting and editing for Steel Business Briefing/Platts, the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, and Kallanish Commodities, as well as marketing for what was then known as ThyssenKrupp Steel USA (now AM/NS Calvert). After a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel in 2021 and has covered the flat rolled, tubular, and trade areas of the industry. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.