Solid as Steel: Production Planning at thyssenkrupp

thyssenkrupp Steel Europe, a major European steel company, operates a so-called push-pickling line (PPL) in Bochum, Germany. The PPL produces a particular type of steel strips that are sold to B2B customers, mainly in the automotive industry. In spring 2014, a senior vice president of thyssenkrupp Steel's production operations and one of his production managers notice that over the span of ten years the production facility regularly did not meet its planned production volumes. They set out to determine the drivers for the deviations from planned production figures with the ultimate goal to improve the production planning process at the Bochum PPL. Students will step into the shoes of Markus Schulze a production manager at thyssenkrupp Steel as he searches for performance drivers at the Bochum PPL and analyzes recent production data to build a forecasting model for production planning.

Application of Recycled Zero-Valent Iron Nanoparticle to the Treatment of Wastewater Containing Nitrobenzene

Zero-valent iron (ZVI) was synthesized using iron oxide, a byproduct of pickling line at a steel work. ZVI with a mean particle size of 500 nm was synthesized. The reaction activity of the synthesized ZVI was much higher than commercial ZVI. When applied to the decomposition of nitrobenzene (NB), the ZVI particles underwent corrosion and passivation oxide film formation, resulting in particle size decrease. The NB decomposition rate increased with increasing ZVI dosage level and with decreasing pH. The solution pH increased monotonously with increasing reaction duration, whereas the aniline concentration showed a maximum at 50 min. Based on the GC/MS analysis, NB is presumed to be reduced into aniline via reductive intermediates such as azobenzene and azoxybenzene. When combined with a subsequent biological process, the synthesized ZVI will be able to decompose NB in wastewater effectively.