Estimation of phosphorus distribution ratio at the end of blowing in BOF

In integrated steel plants, the removal of phosphorous normally takes place during the primary basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steelmaking process. Phosphorous is usually introduced to the integrated steelmaking process through blast furnace additions, such as iron ore, coke, sinter, and fluxes. Among the others parameters such as optimizing the charging system, oxygen supply system, oxygen lance parameters of the converter, the flux quality in combination with temperature process control can improve the BOF efficiency of Dephosphorization. Phosphorus partition ratio (LP) is usually used to evaluate the thermodynamic efficiency of the dephosphorization of slags with different compositions in steelmaking processes. However, this parameter is only useful in equilibrium conditions, and it is not accurate when used to evaluate slag efficiency in industrial processes. Because of this, the aim of this work was to study the phosphorus partition ratio estimated from the experimental results in real plant conditions of two different BOF steel plants and compare them with well-known published models. In the present study, data from two steel plants (further Plant A and Plant B) were evaluated applying Healy’s, Suito and Inoui’s, Zhang’s as well as Assis’s equations. The calculated values were compared against measured values.

Isolation of N-Ethyl-2-pyrrolidinone-Substituted Flavanols from White Tea Using Centrifugal Countercurrent Chromatography Off-Line ESI-MS Profiling and Semi-Preparative Liquid Chromatography

N-Ethyl-2-pyrrolidinone-substituted flavanols (EPSF) are marker compounds for long-term stored white teas. However, due to their low contents and diasteromeric configuration, EPSF compounds are challenging to isolate. In this study, two representative epimeric EPSF compounds, 5′′′R- and 5′′′S-epigallocatechin gallate-8-C N-ethyl-2-pyrrolidinone (R-EGCG-cThea and S-EGCG-cThea), were isolated from white tea using centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC). Two different biphasic solvent systems composed of 1. n-hexane – ethyl acetate – methanol – water (1:5:1:5, v/v/v/v) and 2. n-hexane – ethyl acetate – acetonitrile – water (0.7:3.0:1.3:5.0, v/v/v/v) were used for independent pre-fractionation experiments; 500 mg in each separation of white tea ethyl acetate partition were fractionated. The suitability of the two solvent systems was pre-evaluated by electrospray mass-spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) analysis for metabolite distribution and compared to the results of the CPC experimental data using specific metabolite partition ratio KD values, selectivity factors α, and resolution factors RS. After size-exclusion and semi-preparative reversed-phase liquid chromatography, 6.4 mg of R-EGCG-cThea and 2.9 mg of S-EGCG-cThea were recovered with purities over 95%. Further bioactivity evaluation showed that R- and S-EGCG-cThea possessed in vitro inhibition effects on α-glucosidase with IC50 of 70.3 and 161.7 μM, respectively.

Experimental Determination of the MnO Activity Coefficient in High-Manganese Slags Using the Chemical Equilibrium Method

The thermodynamics of manganese oxide in high-MnO-containing slags was investigated using the chemical equilibrium method in the temperature range of 1623 to 1723 K. MnO-SiO2-Al2O3 slags were brought into equilibrium with molten silver (Ag) under controlled CO/CO2 gas atmosphere. The equilibrium Mn concentration in the silver was measured by ICP-AES (inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy) analysis after the experiment. Slag samples were analyzed by EPMA (electron probe microanalyzer) analysis. The obtained activity aMnO and activity coefficient γMnO were derived as a function of the slag composition and temperature. The activity coefficient of MnO within the investigated slag system increased with an increasing MnO/SiO2 ratio. The derived temperature dependence of the activity coefficient and partition ratio of Mn between the metal and the slag was strongly influenced by the slag composition. The thermodynamic assessment of the activity and activity coefficient of MnO was carried out by applying the regular solution model (RSM) on the basis of interaction energies of the cations and with FactSageTM 7.3. The theoretical calculations were compared with the experimentally derived values.

Thermal modelling of cutting tool temperatures and heat partition in orthogonal machining of high-strength alloy steel

Cutting temperatures and heat partition into the cutting tool are critical factors that significantly affect tool life and part accuracy during metal removal operations, especially in dry machining. Among many thermal modelling studies, uniform heat partition ratio, and/or uniform heat intensity along the tool-chip interface are frequently assumed. This assumption is not valid in actual machining and can lead to erroneous estimated results in the presence of sticking and sliding friction zones. Therefore, it is necessary to accurately predict the cutting tool temperature and heat partition during machining. This paper presents an analytical thermal modelling approach which considers the combined effect of the primary and the secondary heat sources and determines the temperature rise and non-uniform heat partition ratio along the tool-chip interface. Cutting tests were conducted on AISI/SAE 4140 high-strength alloy steel using carbide cutting tools over a wide range of cutting speeds. Cutting temperatures were measured experimentally using an infrared thermal imaging camera. Experimentally established sticking and sliding friction regions were used to evaluate non-uniform frictional heat intensity along the tool-chip interface. The temperature matching condition along the tool-chip interface leads to the solution of distributed non-uniform heat partition ratio by solving a set of linear equations through programming in MATLAB®. Experimental results show to be consistent well with those obtained from the thermal model, yielding a relative difference of predicted average tool-chip interface temperature from −0.8% to 6.3%. It is found that average heat partition into the cutting tool ( RT) varies from 35% down to 15% for the entire range of cutting speeds. These results suggest that, to address the thermal problem in metal cutting, the research and development of tooling should also focus on reducing friction on the tool rake face in addition to the contribution of the combined effect of primary and secondary heat sources on temperature rise at the tool-chip interface.

Screening the baseline fish bioconcentration factor of various types of surfactants using phospholipid binding data

Fish bioconcentration factors (BCFs) are commonly used in chemical hazard and risk assessment. For neutral organic chemicals BCFs are positively correlated with the octanol-water partition ratio (KOW), but KOW is...

A Novel Electrochemical Process for Desulfurization in the CaO-SiO2-Al2O3 System

The effect of electric potential on the sulfide capacity of the CaO-SiO2-Al2O3 system was evaluated by applying voltages in the range of −1.5 to 1.5 V at 1823 K in a C/CO gas equilibrium. When the cathodic potential (−1.5 to 0 V) was applied, it was confirmed that the sulfur partition ratio increased based on the electrochemical reaction of sulfur (S + 2e− = S2−). However, the reversibility of the electrochemical resulfurization reaction (S2− = S + 2e−) in slag was not established in the reverse (anodic) potential region (0–1.5 V), yet the sulfur partition ratio increased. In particular, sulfur evaporation was observed in the anodic potential region. Therefore, in the present study, potential anodic electro-desulfurization mechanisms based on sulfur evaporation are proposed. To verify these mechanisms, sulfur evaporation is discussed in detail as a function of the thermodynamic stability of sulfur in the slag.

An Application of Decision Tree-Based Twin Support Vector Machines to Classify Dephosphorization in BOF Steelmaking

Ensuring the high quality of end product steel by removing phosphorus content in Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) is essential and otherwise leads to cold shortness. This article aims at understanding the dephosphorization process through end-point P-content in BOF steelmaking based on data-mining techniques. Dephosphorization is often quantified through the partition ratio ( l p ) which is the ratio of wt% P in slag to wt% P in steel. Instead of predicting the values of l p , the present study focuses on the classification of final steel based on slag chemistry and tapping temperature. This classification signifies different degrees (‘High’, ‘Moderate’, ‘Low’, and ‘Very Low’) to which phosphorus is removed in the BOF. Data of slag chemistry and tapping temperature collected from approximately 16,000 heats from two steel plants (Plant I and II) were assigned to four categories based on unsupervised K-means clustering method. An efficient decision tree-based twin support vector machines (TWSVM) algorithm was implemented for category classification. Decision trees were constructed using the concepts: Gaussian mixture model (GMM), mean shift (MS) and affinity propagation (AP) algorithm. The accuracy of the predicted classification was assessed using the classification rate (CR). Model validation was carried out with a five-fold cross validation technique. The fitted model was compared in terms of CR with a decision tree-based support vector machines (SVM) algorithm applied to the same data. The highest accuracy (≥97%) was observed for the GMM-TWSVM model, implying that by manipulating the slag components appropriately using the structure of the model, a greater degree of P-partition can be achieved in BOF.