ISW-Development Ltd. (Tampere, Finland):

K. Kanninen, Senior Solutions Architect, e-mail: kimmo.kanninen@swd.fi

SSAB Europe (Raahe, Finland):

J. Lilja, Process Development Manager

Professionals all over the world are actively fighting to increase financial efficiency at full-cycle metallurgical plants. There is a wide range of theory and practice for optimizing technological process stages. However, the market lacks tools to analyze and optimize the operation of such integrated metallurgical plants as a whole. SSAB and SW-Development Ltd. have taken steps towards comprehensive optimization for metallurgical enterprises. The proposed model is able to analyze the complex of material and energy flows in the iron and steel plants, answering the questions: «What is the consumer value of the cheapest coal in the mixture?» The goal of such optimization model is to find the most efficient ways to produce the required grade range in relation to cost effectiveness. This model takes into account production conditions determined by chemical analysis of the raw material, boundary values of impurities in different steel grades and the range of acceptable values of consumer properties of products.